THE 

BIBLE NOT OF MAI: 



OR, 



THE ARGUMENT FOR THE DIVINE ORIGIN 



SACRED SCRIPTURES, 



DRAWN FROM THE SCRIPTURES THEMSELVES. 



BY GARDINER SPRING, D.D., 

PASTOR OF THE BRICK CHURCH IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK. 



I certify- you, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not 
after man. — Paul. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW-YORK. 



r/f^)) 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by 

O. R. KINGSBURY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of the State of 
New- York. 



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CONTENTS. 



PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION. 

THE FITNESS OF THE TIME SELECTED BY DIVINE 
PROVIDENCE FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF THE 
CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. 

PAGE. 

The extreme corruption of religion and manners throughout 

the pagan world .10 

The religious and moral condition of the Jewish nation . . 15 

It was an age of great intellectual vigor and refinement . . 18 

The world was at peace 24 

The time was that predicted in the Jewish Scriptures . . 28 
It was such that it is difficult to account for the success of 

the Gospel without the intervention of Almighty power . 35 

Allegations of Gibbon refuted 38 

CHAPTER I. 

THE BIBLE ABOVE THE INVENTION OF THE HUMAN 
INTELLECT. 

The views which the Scriptures give of the Deity ... 46 

The views presented of the Divine purposes 49 

The Scripture account of the work of creation 51 

The Scripture account of the works of Providence ... 53 

The view the Scriptures present of the redemption of man . 56 

Everything the Bible reveals, forms a part of one great whole 61 

The inexhaustible fulness of the Sacred Writings .... 64 
The intellectual character of the writers of the Bible, and of 

the age in which it was written 67 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER 11. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE BIBLE A SUPERHUMAN SPIRIT. 



PAGE. 



This peculiar spirit appears in its precepts and truths , . 73 
It is most emphatically expressed, in all its tenderness, when 

and where it is most needed 75 

The spirit of those institutions which the Bible establishes . 78 
Its spirit of kindness flows out to all classes of tlie human 

family 80 

The great end and motive of the Divine conduct which it 

reveals 84 

The spirit of the Bible as expressed in its own wondrous 

method of redeeming mercy 86 



CHAPTER HI. 

THE MORAL RECTITUDE OF THE BIBLE. 

The truth and justice of its moral distinctions 97 

It furnishes the only perfect standard of moral rectitude . . 100 
The solicitude it expresses, and the means it adopts for tlie 

promotion of moral rectitude among men 105 

The protection of moral rectitude in the dispensations of 

pardoning mercy 109 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE PECULIAR DOCTRINES OF THE BIBLE GIVE EVI- 
DENCE OF ITS DIVINE ORIGIN. 

The character of man 119 

The moral transformation indispensable to salvation . . . 120 
The method of the sinner's pardon and acceptance witli God 122 

The distinctive character of Christian piety 122 

The / purpose of God in extending his grace to a chosen 

people 123 

The eternal punishment of the incorrigible enemies of God 124 



CONTENTS. r. 



rAou. 



The duty of believing* the Gospel 1^>4 

No false religion has such frank and unreserved honesty . 126 
No false religion would have given tliGse great and peculiar 

doctrines such prominence J29 

No false religion would have disclosed truths so obnoxious 

to the human heart 133 

These truths would have been fatal to the success of Chris- 
tianity, if it had not been from God . 137 



CHAPTER Y. 

THE RELIGION OF THE BIBLE A PROOF OF ITS DIVINE 
ORIGIN. 

It is founded in knowledge . . . . , , • . . . . 15^ 

It is the religion of the heart c . . . . . 154 

Its unearthly tendency 161 

It is a progressive and growing religion 163 

The religion of the saints of the Old and New Testament is 

represented as an imperfect religion ........ 166 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE UNITY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

The agreement in the facts narrated 172 

Unity in the representations of religious truth . . . . . 178 
The harmony of doctrine, experience, and practice .... 182 
The harmony of the Old and New Testaments 185 



CHAPTER Vn. 

ADAPTATION OF THE SCRIPTURES TO THE CHARAC- 
TER AND WANTS OF MAN. 

Their adaptation to man as an individual 198 

Their adaptation to man in his social relations 211 



6 CONTENTS, 

PACK. 

This adaptation is as extensive as it is minute . . . . . 216 
This revelation is adapted to all periods of time .... 220 
Illustration from the South Sea Islanders 227 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE SCRIPTURES ATTESTED 
BY CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

The great truths of the Bible fitted to exert an influence on 

the heart 233 

It is a book of promises . 237 

Its instructions on the subject of prayer 239 

It gives peace and consolation in death 242 

The testimony of the Christian's experience not refuted by 

the negative testimony of the infidel 247 

The Christian's experience founded on solid reasons . . . 248 
The nature of the evidence from experience and conscious- 
ness 251 

The testimony from the Christian's experience fortified by 
unnumbered witnesses , 256 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE BIBLE ACCORDANT WITH HUMAN REASON. 

To reason justly, men must have the opportunity and the 

means of reasoning 266 

May not the Author of the book of nature and of providence 

give a more full revelation of his will ? 269 

Is there anything unreasonable in the revelation itself? . . 270 
It may contain truths which human reason would not have 

discovered 271 

And truths above and beyond the power of human reason to 

comprehend 273 

The great truths and principles of the Bible constitute a 

reasonable system 276 



CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER X. 

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 

The nature and importance of the argument from the Bible 

itself 288 

Relations of the argument to those who reject its Divine 

authority 296 

The doctrine of the church of Rome respecting the authority 

of the Sacred Writings 301 

The province of reason in all matters of religious faith . . 304 

A common error of modern Rationalists 306 

The importance of established religious principles . . . .311 
The Scriptures deserve the most serious and patient study, 

and afFectionate regard • . . 316 



PRELIMIMRY DISSERTATION. 



THE FITNESS OF THE TIME SELECTED BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE 
FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. 

The time was long between the promise given 
to our first parents in the garden of Eden, and the 
actual coming of the promised Saviour. The pa- 
triarchs Avere looking for him, but his advent was 
delayed. The prophets were looking for him, and 
^^ inquired and searched diligently Avhat, or what 
manner of time" it would be when He should appear, 
of whose '' sufferings they testified beforehand, and 
the glory that should follow." Holy men were 
watching and waiting ; holy women too were look* 
mg out in anxious expectation for that highly fa- 
vored one, who should be the mother of Him who 
was the ^^ Seed of the woman," and the ^^ Son of 
the Highest." 

But the time was still distant. Four thousand 
years passed slowly away before this long cherished 
and eager expectation was fulfilled, and He who 
'^ thought it no robbery to be equal with God took 
upon him the form of a servant," and men beheld 
his glory '^ as the only begotten of the Father, full 
of grace and truth." So long indeed was the pro- 

Eible not of Man. 1 ■'' 



10 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

mise delayedj that not a few began to despair of its 
ever being fulfilled ; nor were there wanting those 
who questioned the divine origin of the predictions 
which foretold his advent. But he who ^' sees not 
as man sees," unto whom ^^ a thousand years are as 
one day, and one day is as a thousand years/' had 
nevertheless been preparing the way as fast as his 
unerring wisdom saw best. Events had been taking 
place of high interest ; revolution had been succeed- 
ing revolution in the earth with a view to his ap- 
pearing. '' When the fulness of time was come^ 
God sent forth his Son." It was in every respect 
the fit season. It was not too soon, nor was it too 
late, to secure the objects of his incarnation. 

The period selected was, in many particulars, a 
remarkable period; but it was wonderfully fitted to 
confirm the truth of divine revelation ; to wake 
the nations from their long-continued stupidity and 
infatuation, and fix their attention upon the design 
of his advent ; as well as to show the power of God 
in extending his Gospel and kingdom through the 
aarth, in defiance of the powers of darkness, and the 
stagnant unbelief of men. 

In adverting to some of the characteristics of this 
period, the first that strikes us is, the extreme cor- 
ruption of religion and manners throughout the 
pagan world. We have no means of ascertaining 
for how long a period after the creation men retained 
the knowledge of the true God. Very soon after 
the flood, and certainly as early as the foundation 
of the Babylonian empire, they became idolaters. 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 1] 

From that period, the greater part of mankind 
had been wandering in paths which resembled an 
inextricable labyrinth, the deadly vapors of which 
extinguished the faint light that conducted their 
footsteps. More especially from the time in which 
God called Abraham out from Ur of the Chaldees, 
do the Gentile nations seem to have been given 
over to a reprobate mind. From one false notion 
of the Deity to another more false, and from one 
system of foolish and demoralizing observances to 
another, they rushed into idolatry of the grossest 
form, until they lost sight of most of their religious 
traditions ; and ^' because they did not like to retain 
God in their knowledge," had become " Atheists in 
the world." Phoenicia, Egypt, and Thrace, trans- 
mitted their absurd mythology to Greece and Rome, 
and amid the multiplicity of their gods, the one only 
living and true God had no place. A selected and 
favored few there were, in whose bosoms something 
like the miniature resemblance of this great truth 
was locked up as an inaccessible secret ; while the 
multitude thought the Godhead ^' like unto gold, 
and silver, and stone, graven by art and man's 
device." 

Heathen sages had written upon the nature of 
virtue and the obligations to practise it, while their 
own vices showed that they had little knowledge 
of morals, and were very ineffectual teachers of it 
to others. '^ Across the night of paganism, philoso- 
phy flitted on, like the lantern-fly of the tropics, a 
light to itself, but alas ! no more than an ornament 



12 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

of the surrounding darkness." Thinking minds had 
proposed to themselves questions of importance to 
the hfe that now is, and still more important to that 
which is to come, without being able to give to any 
one of them a satisfactory answer. Everywhere 
they saw mysteries ; and withal, so dense a cloud 
hanging over the vast future, that the farther they 
pursued their inquiries the deeper were they plunged 
in painful uncertainty. . Their thoughts of another 
life were all confused and obscure. Much was 
written of ^' manes, and ghosts, and shades of de- 
parted men;" their poets sang of streams that emp- 
tied into the infernal regions, of ^^ Elysian Fields," 
of the seats of the blessed, and of nectar quaffed by 
the gods ; but they were fables got up for the vulgar, 
and in which the very inventors of them had no 
confidence. With all her fascinating beauty and 
tenderness, poetry herself believed not what she 
wrote ; and though in accordance with the spirit of 
the age she publicly rehearsed the absurdities of her 
mythology, in her hours of loneliness and reflection 
she scarcely ventured to echo the strains of her own 
lyre. The popular and civil theology, established 
by the laws, ^^ worshipped everything as god except 
God himself," and gave its sanction to rites in which 
there was such a mingling of absurdity, lascivious- 
ness, and cruelty, that they may not be recited. 
Conscience was not so obdurate and silent, as to be 
prevented from uttering her admonitions'; nor yet so 
benighted, as not to have some strong, though in- 
distinct apprehensions of a terrible recompense. Nor 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 1-j 

was reason, in the midst of all her degradation, so 
absolutely stupefied and brutalized, as not some- 
times to assert her own greatness, and grasp realities 
of terrible import. And the more they did this, the 
more they both stood in frightful perplexity, lest the 
labyrinth in which they were wandering should 
border on the verge of the precipice. The state of 
the pagan mind, however well informed on other 
subjects, on the subject of religion and morals was 
to the last degree degraded and melancholy. Among 
other facts which illustrate this remark, it may be 
noticed, that the Senate of Rome itself did not pass 
the decree for the abolition of human sacrifices, 
until the consulship of Publius Lucius Crassus and 
Cneius Lentulus, which was but about ninety years 
before the coming of Christ. Nowhere is so much 
information upon this point contained within so 
small a compass, as in the first chapter of PauPs 
Epistle to the Romans. It is difficult to read the 
description there given without putting a veil upon 
one's face. The schools of virtue had des-enerated 
into the merest sinks of vice and immorality ; theii 
religion itself had consecrated all sorts of crime , 
while the best that can be said of their gods is, thai 
they were the finest representations which the inge- 
nuity and skill of the sculptor could furnish of the 
basest of human passions. 

Such had long been the religious and moral state 
of the heathen world ; and when the Saviour came 
it was at its maturity. We cannot delineate the 
scene, nor tell its darkness. It was the gloom of 



14 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

pervading error, and almost universal crime. It 
could not be seen, for it enveloped men like the mist 
of midnight, and was ^^ darkness that might be felt." 
It penetrated the halls of science and the schools of 
philosophy ; it shrouded the palaces of kings, threw 
its dark pall over the chambers of legislation, and 
overlaid, with its broad mantle, the whole pagan 
world. Temples, with their shrines, victims, and 
priests, were wrapped in it ; their vestal fires became 
flickering, grew pale, and were extinguished. Men 
there had been, and were, who had erected stupen- 
dous monuments in honor of the human intellect ; 
but on the relations of man to his Maker, they rea- 
soned and wrote like children. In the darkness that 
overshadowed them they walked at random ; they 
had an aim, they were conscious there was some- 
thing to seek after ; but they groped about, '^ if haply 
they might feel after God, and find him." Here 
and there, at long intervals, the human mind cast 
forth a ray of light, but it was fleeting and gone ; 
like the sudden lightning, it served only to render 
the gloom which followed more intense and appal- 
ling. Night is not darker than the dark day which 
then overhung the earth. If the deep and dire exi- 
gences of men could constitute a fitting season for 
His coming who was to be the ^^ light of the world," 
the time had come to interpose either for extermi- 
nating or saving it. There could not have been a 
more seasonable period for God's unfolding his own 
divine method of mercy. The nations could no lon- 
ger be left in this fearful degradation ; the prince of 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 15 

darkness could no longer be permitted to roam the 
earth without restraint ; the God of love could no 
longer withhold his Son. 

Nor was the religious and moral condition of the 
Jewish nation more enviable than that of the pagan 
world. The Hebrew race were, from the beginning, 
designed to be subservient to the introduction of the 
Gospel to all mankind. Lying as they did upon the 
borders of Asia, Europe, and Africa, they held a 
position which signally qualified them to be made 
use of for this purpose. But by their guilty sym- 
pathy with the character of the pagan nations, they 
became partakers also of their wants and woes. The 
apostle, after having given the humbling descrij)- 
tion of other lands, to which we just now referred, 
applies the same description to the Jews. His epis- 
tle was more especially directed to Jews ; and his 
language to them is, '-^ Wherefore thou art inexcus- 
able, O man that judgest, for wherein thou judgest 
another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that 
judgest doest the same things?'' The Jews had long 
enjoyed the knowledge of God, as it was revealed 
from heaven; they had been educated amid rites 
and sacrifices that were prefigurative of the great 
redemption ; they had come to maturity under^ the 
instructions of a lawgiver, of holy men, of poets, and 
of seers who had miraculous intercourse with hea- 
ven, and whose great theme was the advent of the 
predicted Deliverer. But they were an arrogant and 
proud people, an unbelieving, hard-hearted people, 
and profited little from their distinguished privileges. 



IG THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

Until ^^ the carrying away into Babylon" they were 
an idolatrous people — nay, ^^ mad upon their idols." 
Wise as their system of religion was, and fitted as 
it was to answer great and important ends, and of 
divine origin as it was, it was not designed to be the 
universal, nor perpetual religion. It was but the 
commencement of those more complete discoveries 
of religious truth, which subsequent revelations were 
to supply ; a sort of preparatory school, that was 
introductory to a more perfect dispensation. The 
apostle, in his Epistle to the Galatians, dwells upon 
this thought in its relations to the truth we are illus- 
trating. ^' Now I say that the heir^ so long as he is 
a child^ differeth nothing from a servant^ though he 
be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors 
until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, 
w^hen we were children^ were in bondage under the 
elements of the world : but lohen the fulness of time 
tvas come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, 
made under the law, to redeem them that were un- 
der the law, that we might receive the adoption of 

SOJIS^ 

The Jewish dispensation, at the time of the Sav- 
iour's coming, was an old and worn out economy ; 
it bore the marks of decay and dissolution ; it had 
accomplished its object without making the nation 
holy: because it had done its work, it was ^^ ready 
to vanish away." It ^' could not make the comers 
thereunto perfect." 

But it was important that its inefficacy should 
be proved ; and the actual condition of the Hebrew 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 17 

nation was now such as to convince them, and the 
worldj how Httle it could accomphsh. When the 
Saviour came, their moral depravity was fast ad- 
irancing to the last extremities of human wickedness. 
The cup of their iniquity was full. ^^ Never," says 
their own historian Josephus, speaking of them but 
a few years after the birth of Christ — ^^ never was 
there a time since the beginning of the world more 
fruitful in wickedness." Their national history, from 
the days of Malachi to John the Baptist, furnishes 
the most painful and affecting proof that the con- 
dition, even of this favored people of God, demanded 
the interposition of some great Teacher who should 
speak '^ with authority, and not as the Scribes." 
Portions of them Avere sunk in great and dishearten- 
ing stupidity ; and while the minds of other portions 
were moved and excited, they were in a state of 
perplexing doubt, cruel fear, and terrible agitation. 
For four hundred years, the people who had been 
wont to enjoy habitual intercourse with the Deity, 
and to receive frequent and repeated instructions 
from his lips, had not heard the voice of the God of 
Abraham, nor had a single messenger from heaven 
visited them. As a nation, they slept the sleep of 
death, and seemed to be fast verging towards abso- 
lute destruction. The nation was not absolutely 
broken up ; their religious and civil economy were 
not actually dissolved ; but they were '^ without form 
and void." 

But the Creator's purposes were not completed 
in this dark chaos. Already was his Spirit silently 



18 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

and gently hovering over the face of the waters. 
Rays of truth began to be evolved, which had long 
been latent, and here and there a few faint beams 
emerged from the distant horizon. Minds that had 
been waiting in anxious expectation, caught the 
coming day as its first light kissed the hill-tops 
of Judea, and rose brighter until it fell upon its 
vales, to ^^give light to them that sat in darkness 
and dwelt in the shadow of death." Lowly cot- 
tages were cheered by it, and John saw it in the 
wilderness. The shepherds of Bethlehem beheld it 
as they watched their flocks, and heard the cheer- 
ful voices that announced its rising : till, at length, 
the eastern Magi discovered it in the star that led 
them to the place where the holy child Jesus was 
cradled. 

It is a fact, in several respects of deep interest, 
that the age in which the Saviour of men became 
incarnate, was also an age of great intellectual vigor 
and refinement. This was important, in the first 
place, for the sake of showing that ^^the world by 
wisdom knew not God." One of the leading infidel 
objections to Christianity is, that it is needless, and 
that the lights of human reason and the refinements 
of philosophy are able to accomplish all that Chris- 
tianity proposes. This question is to be determined 
hy facts. It is by appealing to the moral character 
of our race under the brightest periods of this Avorld's 
history ; to periods when the lights of reason and na- 
ture had made all the discoveries they could make, 
and when the wise men of this world had taught all, 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 19 

and more than they knew, that we can form a just 
estimate of their instructions. Nor is it by any 
doubtful or tedious process that we are driven to the 
conclusion, that the most vigorous and best in- 
structed minds the world has known, themselves 
knew little of the great subjects of which Chris- 
tianity treats, and which relate to man's eternal well- 
being. It was an age of unequalled civilization and 
learning when Christ came : so far as human influ- 
ences could render them so, civilization and learning 
were at the zenith of their glory. The palmy days 
of Grecian literature had indeed become obscured: 
the age of Pericles and Alcibiades passed away when 
Greece was reduced to a Roman province. But for 
along time after this, Greece maintained a silent su- 
periority over her conquerors ; her arts of peace and 
her schools of philosophy still gave her the preemi- 
nence. Athens was still a great commercial empo- 
rium, and the tribunal of the Areopagus, one of the 
most sacred and reputable courts of law in the Gen- 
tile world, was distinguished for its legal research 
and acumen, and for the weight and irnpartiality of 
its decisions. Some of the most learned men in Rome 
were still educated in Greece. Julius Caesar was a 
pupil of ApoUonius Milo, at Rhodes, and Cicero him- 
self, during the civil wars of Rome, was a pupil of 
the same scholar, as well as of Philo, a refugee from 
Athens and then at Rome. The sons of Roman 
princes and senators to a great extent, either procured 
Greek instructors in Rome, or were sent to Greece 
as the favorite habitation of genius, eloquence, and 



20 i'"iE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

fancy, and as the consecrated soil where the arts at- 
tained their highest perfection. 

Rome, too, then extended her boundaries from 
the Atlantic on the west, to the Euphrates on the 
east ; and from the Rhine and the Danube on the 
north, to the deserts of Arabia and Africa on the 
south. With the exception of Britain soon after 
subdued by Agricola, the interior of Africa, and the 
hardy barbarians of the north of Europe, her proud 
Eagle had become the standard of the world. It 
was also the golden age of Rome — ''the Augustan 
age," — proverbial for its preeminence in literature - 
and the arts. Augustus Caesar, whose personal ' 
character might indeed have given him rank with 
Marius, or Sylla, or Nero, was placed by Divine ; 
providence in circumstances which extended his 
reputation as a Avarrior, a statesman and a legislator, _ 
to the utmost kingdoms, came to the throne about - 
twenty years before the Saviour was born, and then 
veigned in the splendor of his power. Whatever 
learning and civilization could achieve for the world,/] 
it had the full and unembarrassed opportunity of -1 
performing ; while the result shows, that, as the in- 
tellect of men became invigorated and accomplished, 
their morals became degraded, and their religion as 
degraded and vicious as the human mind can loell 
conceive it to be. And Avhat more fitting time for 
introducing the Gospel ; for showing that '' the 
weakness of God is stronger than men, and the fool- 
ishness of God is wiser than men ?" The Scrip- 
tures call our attention to this remarkable fact. '' It 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 21 

i3 written, I will destroy the Avisdom of the wise, 
and will bring to nothing the understanding of the 
prudent. Where is the wise ? where is the scribe ? 
where is the disputer of this world ? hath not God 
made foolish the wisdom of this world ? For after 
tliat^ in the wisdom of God, the uoi^ld by wisdom 
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of 
p^eaching to save them that believe." It is an ob- 
servable expression of Divine wisdom, that his own 
decree for the moral elevation of men should not be 
carried into effect until ^^ after that" human wis- 
dom had made its full, and fair, and best experi- 
ment, and demonstration was had that •' the vv^orld 
by wisdom knew not God." Nor is there to be 
found at the present day, or at any period in the 
history of the past, more convincing evidence of the 
insufficiency of natural religion, than is found in the 
intellectual refinement of that age in which ^' the 
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." 

There was another important object attained by 
the Saviour's advent at this period of intellectual 
refinement. It was to silence the objection that 
Christianity could not endure the scrutiny of learn- 
ing and refinement. In introducing the new re- 
ligion, a religion which, from the simplicity of its 
rites, the diffusiveness of its spirit, and the extent 
of its offered salvation, should stand abreast with 
the wants of the race, it was greatly desirable that 
it should be introduced at a time when its claims 
could be thoroughly canvassed, and the evidence of 
its divine origin co^ld be put to the test by the 



22 'i^HE BIBLE I^OT OF MAN. 

severest scrutiny of the most competent and well- 
furnished minds. It had been an inauspicious cir- 
cumstance, and a triumph to infidelity not easily si- 
lenced, had Christianity, like the religion of Mahomet, 
commenced its progress in an ignorant and uncivi- 
lized country, and in a barbarous age. It had been 
no difiicult matter, in such an age, to have practised 
the grossest imposition ; nor, at such a period, would 
men have been qualified for that grave research 
without which no religion ought to be received, nor 
for ferreting out those tricks of imposture which 
are attendant upon all false religions. In this re- 
spect Christianity stands upon high ground. Her 
infant Author first announced himself to an age 
celebrated in story and immortalized in song. His 
apostles travelled over classic ground. They estab- 
lished churches in the land of Euclid, of Aristotle, 
and Longinus ; of Demosthenes, Solon, and Lycur- 
gus ; of Homer and Pindar ; of Terence and Varro, 
Atticus and Cicero, Sallust and Livy, Horace, Ovid, 
and Virgil. Lands that had given birth to such 
men, were not likely to shut their eyes upon the 
gradual encroachment of a religion that counter- 
acted all their previous notions, and that poured 
contempt upon their altars and their gods. Rather 
would they scrutinize, with the utmost severity, 
every item of the evidence by which a religion, 
claiming to be from Heaven, was supported. Reck- 
oning from the birth of Augustus Caesar a few years 
onward, we find a constellation of bright and 
splendid men throwing their light over the Roman 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 23 

empire. Seneca^ the preceptor of Nero, and per- 
haps more distinguished for his moral virtues than 
any other heathen philosopher ; Lucan^ the poet : 
Quinius Curtius, the historian of Alexander the 
Great ; Pliny the elder, the celebrated philosopher 
and natural historian, who perished during an erup- 
tion of Mount Vesuvius ; Josephus, the celebrated 
Jewish historian ; Martial, Epictetus, and Quintil- 
ian, the last of whom was an orator and critic of 
great celebrity, was patronized by the emperors, 
established a school of rhetoric at Rome, and whose 
work remains a text-book in the modern universities 
of Europe. These were the men, and such as these, 
who exerted an influence upon the Roman intellect 
and character at the period when Christianity began 
its progress. 

It may perhaps be still more to our purpose to 
remark, that the age was one of great legal acumen, 
and one in which there were not wanting men who 
were familiar with the laws of evidence, and were 
trained in the trade of reasoning. The celebrated 
law of the Twelve Tables, a system of jurisprudence 
which served as the root of Roman law, which was 
subsequently digested under Justinian, and which is 
deemed of no small value in modern times, had al- 
ready been selected and arranged. It may be ques- 
tioned, whether the mind of man was ever better 
prepared to investigate the claims of the new re- 
ligion, and the great facts on which that religion 
turned, than was the Gentile mind at that age of the 
world. And this was the period when the Saviour 



24 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

came. It was when the lights of varied science co- 
operated with the deeply imbedded prejudices of men 
against all unwarrantable and ill-founded innovations, 
that He came who had nothing to fear from the most 
rigid and unsparing investigation of his title to hu- 
man confidence. 

It may be remarked in the next place, and as an 
index of bright augury, that at the time the Saviour 
was horn the world was at peace. Rome had risen 
to her proud superiority by conquest. The seven 
hundred years of the Commonwealth had been dis- 
tinguished by nothing so much as her conflicts with 
the nations of the earth, and her internal and civil 
dissensions and massacres. But by a most kind inter-* 
position of Divine Providence, these evils were now 
suspended, and there was a universal armistice be- 
tween the great conqueror and all the nations of the 
earth. Antiochus of Syria, and the Galatians o^ 
Asiatic Gauls, had submitted to Rome on her own 
terms. The second Macedonian war had termi- 
nated the kingdom of Macedon at the battle of Pyd- 
na, and the Gre*cian independence was overthrown 
under the walls of Corinth. Scipio Africanus had 
terminated the third Punic war by the destruction 
of Carthage, and the Roman army had been trium- 
phant in Spain and Gaul. T?ie Numidian wars had 
been brought to a close by Caius Marius, and Jugur- 
tha had been led in triumph to Rome. An efl'ectual 
clieck had been given to the Cimmerian and Scy- 
thian tribes in the north, the revolt of the Italian 
allies had been happily terminated by the generosity 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 25 

of their conquerors, and the pirates of Sicily had been 
finally suppressed and colonized by the prowess and 
wisdom of Pompey. Jerusalem had been taken also 
by the same accomplished warrior; and the em- 
bittered contest between the popular and aristocratic 
parties in Rome had been brought to a close, by the 
triumphant arms of Julius Cassar over Pompey at the 
battle of Pharsalia. The internal dissensions between 
Octavius Caesar and Anthony on the one side, and 
Brutus and Cassius on the other, had been terminated 
at Philippi ; Egypt had been reduced to a Roman pro- 
vince, by the victory of Octavius over the far-famed 
Glueen Cleopatra ; and Octavius, now Augustus Cae- 
sar, was called to the throne. The policy of Augus- 
tus was a peaceful policy; his object was to effect 
the stability, rather than the extension of the em- 
pire. This emperor died at the advanced age of 
seventy-five years, between the birth and the cruci- 
fixion of Christ, and on his death-bed left his coun- 
sel to his statesmen and warriors to make no further 
incursion upon other lands, but to cultivate the arts 
of peace. The Cantabrian war was terminated after 
he came to the throne, and by his orders the temple 
of Janus was closed. The disturbances in the Bos- 
phorus were now appeased by Agrippa ; Drusus was 
recalled from Germany, and the command of the 
army in that province intrusted to Tiberius. The 
ambition of Augustus was gratified by the consoli- 
dation of the empire, and all his plans were to 
augment its splendor by its industry, its litera- 
ture, its wealth, and its arts. A short period after 

Bible not of Man. 3 



26 'J'HE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

the birth of Christ, the war in Germany broke out 
again ; but at the time of his birth, it was a season 
of profound peace throughout the Roman Empire. 
The temple of Janus having been reopened during 
these disturbanceSj it was now again closed, under 
new auspices, and remained shut until Jerusalem was 
taken and destroyed by Titus. Janus Avas the god 
of war ; and as such was before all other gods, even 
before Jupiter himself. Hence, in the great war be- 
tween the Latins and the Romans, the formula, dic- 
tated by the Pontifex Maximus to Publius Decius 
when he devoted himself and the legions of the ene- 
my to the gods of death, addresses Janus as the god 
who was specially invited to go out with them to 
battle. He was one of the ancient Pelasgian deities. 
The gate of Janus was the Porta Janualis, one of the 
gates of the original Rome, on the Palatine road, and 
an entrance gate into the city. As the city became 
extended, it was subsequently included within the 
city itself. His principal temple was that of Janus 
Quirinus. The statue of this god was set up at the 
Porta Janualis rather than at any other place, be- 
cause tradition recorded, that in the battle between 
the Romans and the Sabines, in the reign of Romu- 
lus, he had wrought signal deliverances for Rome 
on that very spot. It was the usage of the Romans 
to open the gates of this temple in the time of Avar, 
and in the time of peace to shut them. They had 
been closed but five years since the building of 
Rome, and once only between the reigns of Numa 
and Augustus, and that was at the close of the first 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 27 

Punic war. Rome was shaken by no intestine di- 
visions, and the splendor of her foreign conquests 
seemed to promise tranquillity for a great while to 
come. At this period the Saviour was born. 
Successive wars had agitated the empire for ages ; 
but for twelve years, the confused noise of battle 
had scarcely been heard.* There was time for 
thought, for there was tranquillity. It was a fitting 
season for Him to appear, who was the Prince of 
Peace and the harbinger of reconciliation between 
God and man. It was predicted of him, that ^^in 
his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance 
of peace, so long as the moon endureth." 

The mild genius of Christianity has nothing to 
do with war, save to exterminate it from the earth. 
The spirit of Christ is not the spirit of blood. Mili- 
tary history is not the history of the true Gospel. 
^'I came not," says its Divine Author, '^to destroy 
men's lives, but to save them." - The church of God 
may be an injured, a suffering, a subjugated commu- 
nity, but she is not a ferocious and warlike commu- 
nity. Of all the causes which obstruct the progress 
of Christianity, war is the most fatal — the growling 
faces of the double-headed Janus, the most terrific. 
There were none of these fears, and none of these 
distractions, when He descended to dwell with men, 
who was to subdue their selfish and ferocious pas- 
sions, and ^'make wars cease unto the ends of the 
earth." He who from his high and holy place 

* Prideaux' Connexions. — Blair's Chronological Tables. — En- 
cyclop. Art Rom. Empire, and Arnold's Rome. 



28 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

assorts the prerogative, '^ I form the light and create 
darkness ; I make peace and create evil ;" and in 
^^ whose hand is the heart of the king, and he turneth 
it whithersoever he will," had hushed the jarring in- 
terests and the more jarring hearts of men, for the 
purpose of setting up his kingdom, and giving an 
impulse to his empire, who ^^ shall judge among the 
nations, and shall rebuke many people ; and they 
shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their 
spears into pruning-hooks," neither shall they ^^ learn 
war any more." 

" Peaceful was the night, 
Wherein the Prince of light 
His reign of peace on earth began." 

In the beautiful language of the greatest of Eng- 
lish poets, 

" No war, or battle's sound 
Was heard the world around ; 
The idle spear and shield were high uphung, 
The hooked chariot stood 
Unstained with hostile blood, 
The trumpet spake not to the armed throng, 
And kings sat still with awful eye, 
As if they surely knew their Sovereign Lord was by." 

Another fact of interest is, that the time of the 
Saviour^ s combing was that predicted in the Jewish 
Scriptures, He himself was a Jew, and his first 
mission was to the Jewish people. '^ Unto you 
first^^'^ says the Apostle Peter to the Jews, ^^God 
having raised up his Son .Tesus, sent him to bless 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 29 

you, in turning every one of you from his iniqui- 
ties." His own commission to his immediate dis- 
ciples was. to '^ go first to the lost sheep of the 
house of Israel," ^^ beginning at Jerusalem." The 
sum and substance of all the predictions in the Old 
Testament, the whole scope and spirit of the entire 
system of its prophecies, is the testimony it bears to 
Jesus Christ. Either from the teachings of their 
own lingering traditions, or from their acquaintance 
with the dispersed Jews, or from their knowledge 
of the Old Testament Scriptures, translated as they 
had been into the beautiful and fertile language of 
the Greeks, and of which the curiosity of every 
scholar would have led him to know something, or 
from some heaven-imparted intimation, or from all 
these combined, there was a general expectation, 
even in the pagan mind, of some great and salutary 
change in human affairs, through the appearance 
and interposition of some distinguished Personage, 
who would become the benefactor of the race. 
Wise heathen there were, who had expressed the 
hope that the world would ere long find some relief 
from the pervading doubts and darkness that had 
so long rested upon it, in the dawning, at least, of a 
brighter day. The beautiful Eclogue of Virgil, ad- 
dressed to the Emperor Augustus, in which he sings 
of the approaching Golden Age, sometimes seems to 
the Christian scholar to be almost an inspired pre- 
diction, in which this most beautiful of all the Latin 
poets was carried out of himself, to speak of the 
new and Divine Messenger who was to be born 



30 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

under the reign of this favored prince. Different na- 
tions of the earth were in actual, though somewhat 
vague and undefined expectation of some such great 
and philanthropic Deliverer. Their state of mind 
seems to have resembled that of the pagans of the 
Southern Islands in our day, who were disgusted 
and sick at heart of their own idolatry, and pre- 
pared to throw their idols ^^to the moles and the 
bats," almost on the first announcement of the true 
religion. ^^ Men were weary of the past ; they had 
a sort of hope that the time was near when this 
gloom of ages, this wintry frown would be succeeded 
by the renovation and loveliness of the spring-time 
of a new year-— a new era, verdant with the hope 
and promise of a rich harvest. 

This vague impression upon the Gentile world 
assumed the form of more definite expectation among 
the Jews. Their own Scriptures had not merely 
intimated a brighter and blander period, but their 
prophets had pictured it in a perspective, the limits 
of which their own eyes beheld Avith remarkable 
precision. It was not a* dream, which fascinated 
them ; for they held in their hands most remarkable 
and astonishingly minute descriptions of the Person 
of their expected Messiah, and the circumstances 
and time of his appearing. The first promise in the 
Garden of Eden had told them that he Avould be of 
human descent, and subsequent revelations indicated 
that he would be of Hebrew origin. The thne of 
his advent was determined by three distinct passages 
in their own Scriptures. 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 31 

^' The sceptre shall not depart from Jiidah, nor a 
lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come.^'* 
This prediction affirms, that the Hebrew state shall 
not have passed away U7itil the Messiah shall have 
appeared. In many respects, the political and legis- 
lative authority of the Jews had passed avv^ay before 
the Saviour was born. Judea was a subjugated pro- 
vince of the Roman Empire ; her inhabitants were 
enrolled and taxed by the Emperor Augustus ; her 
laws were made by Rome ; and a Roman governor 
had his palace in Jerusalem, there held his court, 
and swayed his sceptre over the vanquished Jews. 
But emblems of authority remained among them 
still ; the^^ were still recognized as an embodied peo- 
ple, until several years after the Saviour's advent, 
and the actual destruction of the city and temple by 
Titus. From the period of the restoration of the 
city after the Babylonian captivity, up to its utter 
demolition by the legions of Rome, there always 
had been ^^ some person, or body of persons," who 
ruled, or professed to rule according to the law of 
Moses."* After this, the sceptre and the lawgiver 
had departed from Judah forever. 

A prediction is also contained in the writings of 
Haggai and Malachi, in relation to the temple, of the 
following import : ^^ And I will shake all nations, 
and the Desire of all nations shall come. And I will 
fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. 
The glory of this latter house shall be greater than 

* See Stroud's Dissertation on tlie seventy weeks of Daniel. 



32 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. _ 

of the former, saith the Lord of hosts. And the Lord, 
whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, 
even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye de- 
light in : behold he shall come, saith the Lord of 
hosts." The personage here spoken of is the pro- 
mised Messiah ; he was to come before the temple 
was finally destroyed, and to fill it with his presence 
and glory. He did come, and did thus fill the tem- 
ple with his presence and glory ; and less than forty 
years after his coming it was laid in ruins, and has 
never been rebuilt. 

But the most remarkable prediction in relation 
to his advent, is contained in the prophecies of 
Daniel. While this prophet was engaged in prayer, 
the Angel Gabriel was sent from heaven to make to 
him the following communication. ^' Seventy weeks 
are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy 
city, to finish transgression, to make an end of sin, 
to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in 
everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision 
and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Know 
therefore and understand, that from the going forth 
of the commandment to restore and to build Jeru- 
salem, unto Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks 
and threescore and two weeks : the street shall be 
built again, and the wall even in troublous times. 
And after threescore and two weeks, shall Messiah 
be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the 
prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the 
sanctuary ; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, 
and unto the end of the war desolations are deter- 



PRELIMIxNARY ESSAY. 33 

mined." The person whose coming is here spoken 
of is the Messiah the Prince, who was to make an 
end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and 
bring in everlasting righteousness. The time in 
which he should come was towards the close of the 
seventy weeks, commencing with Jerusalem as re- 
stored by the decree of Artaxerxes, and extending to 
its destruction by Titus. 

The Jewish weeks were of two kinds : the one, 
the ordinary week, consisting of seven days ; the 
other, the extraordinary, or prophetical, consisting 
of seven years. They had Sabbatic years, by which 
their years were divided into weeks of years, each 
week containing seven years. If the ordinary com- 
putation, making a week to consist of seven days, 
be adopted in this prophecy of Daniel, it is impossi- 
ble to see how so many great events as are included 
in the prophecy, could take place within the small 
compass of seventy weeks of days, or less than one 
year and a half. It will be recollected that the 
repairing of Jerusalem itself, and the restoration of 
the civil and religious polity of the Jews under Ezra 
and Nehemiah, occupied forty-nine years ; so that 
the prophecy remains to be explained by the extra- 
ordinary and prophetic computation which counts 
a day for a year. These seventy weeks, therefore, 
amount to four hundred and ninety years. 

This term of four hundred and ninety years 
begins with the complete restoration of Jerusalem 
and the Jewish polity under Nehemiah, and ends 
with their dissolution by the armies of Rome, when 

Bible not «f Ma a. 2*'' 



34 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

the city was destroyed, the people dispersed, the 
temple burned, its religious services abolished ; and 
people, and government, and religion, sank together 
into a common ruin. Now we know with great pre- 
cision the time when this latter event took place. It 
was in ^Uhe month of September, in the year of our 
Lord 70, according to the vulgar era." Here the 
four hundred and ninety years terminated ; so that 
reckoning back from this period four hundred and 
ninety years, we come to the year before Christ, 
420. This ought to be the year when, according to 
this prophecy, the holy city, the temple worship, 
and the civil and religious polity of the Jews were 
fully restored and established, after the desolations 
of their captivity in Babylon. And this ivas the 
year of its restoration. It was in the year 420 be- 
fore Christ, that ^^Nehemiah, on his second visit to 
Jerusalem, finally succeeded in bringing the city of 
his fathers into the state required by the words of 
the angel. Consequently, the complete restoration 
and final ruin of the city fully answer to the begin- 
ning and end of the predicted term."^ According to 
the terms of Daniel's prophecy, it was not until after 
the expiration of threescore and tioo weeks, or sixty- 
two weeks of years, that is, four hundred and ninety- 
four years from the restoration of Jerusalem, that 
the Messiah was to be '^cut off;" and it was in the 

* I have followed in this interpretation tlie views of Dr. Stroud. 
After comparing with some care what has been written on tliis ' 
subject by Prideaux, Newton, Marshall, Faber, and Blaney, Dr 
Stroud appears to my own mind to have the preference. 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY, 35 

third year of DaniePs * sixty-fifth week that he was 
actually crucified. It was a fitting timej therefore, 
for the coming of Christ, Avhich thus confirmed the 
truth of those memorable predictions concerning his 
advent, and thus established the faith of his people 
in him as the Divine Author of the Christian dis- 
pensation. 

There is one more thought which we may not 
suppress, which, in view of some of the objections 
of some infidel writers to the Christian argument 
derived from the rapid and extensive propagation 
of Christianity, deserves a moment's consideration. 
It is, that the time of the Saviour's advent was such^ 
that it is difficult to account for the success of the 
Gospel without the intervention of Almighty power. 
History establishes several important facts in rela- 
tion to this subject, which demand notice. 

The first is, that within the first century of the 
Christian era, the Gospel had made a progress that 
is altogether unexampled and without a parallel. In 
less than a single year after its Founder was accused 
as a malefactor, and on the very soil where his blood 
was shed, its converts amounted to nearly ten thou- 
sand; in less than two years it overran Judea^ and 
in less than a single century it pervaded Syria and 
Lybia, Egypt and Arabia, Persia and Mesopotamia 
Armenia and Parthia, the whole of Asia Minor, and 
no small part of Europe. 

The next fact is, that when it began its progress 
the prejudices of both pagans and Jews were alike 
hostile to it. All the world were either Jews, or 



36 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

pagans ; all the world was opposed to Christianity. 
It had to make its way against the intellect and 
learning both of Jews and pagans ; against the habits 
of both, than which there is no more dangerous 
experiment. The political force of both pagans and 
Jews was also against it. With respect to the Jews, 
the Sanhedrim was to be opposed ; and they had 
power both over the moral and physical strength 
of the nation. Despised as the Jews were by the 
pagans, and though a subjugated and contemned 
people, they made common cause with pagans 
against Christianity. It is a principle of human 
nature, that when any set of men are selected as 
objects of contempt, that moment are they joined 
together as a firm and cemented band. The strength 
of their union depends upon the greatness of the 
contempt, or injuries, which they suffer; they will 
make sacrifices against a common enemy, which 
they would find it difficult to make for their indi- 
vidual safety. The Jews when among the heathen 
were obliged to suffer this contempt, and therefore 
were bound firmly together. Yet when any of them 
became Christians, they did so in opposition to the 
persecution of their own countrymen, as well as the 
surrounding pagans ; thus proving that the enmity 
of the human heart against the Gospel is stronger 
than this strong principle of association. But not- 
withstanding all this, when an encounter was fairly 
instituted between the combined hostility of pagans 
and Jews on the one hand, and Christianity on the 
other, the latter was the conqueror. There is some- 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 37 

thing wondrous in this rapid spread of the Gospel 
in such an age, and something which cannot be ac- 
counted for upon ordinary principles. 

On the principles by which men are usually 
governed, there must have been greater intellect on 
the side of Christianity, than on the side of its op- 
posers ; or there must have been greater bribes ; or 
there must have been vast inducements addressed 
to man's sense of enjoyment. But there was 
nothing of all this. On the contrary, here are 
unlettered Jews contending with the intellectual 
refinement, and subtil philosophy of the Augustan 
age ; preaching Jesus Christ to men who '' sought 
after wisdom,'' and to whom Christ was a stumbling 
block and his cross foolishness. Here are unlettered 
fishermen of Galilee, encountering the pride of Gre- 
cian and Roman philosophy, and meeting the scoffs 
of the lawyers of the Areopagus, '' What will this 
babbler say ?" when Paul '' preached to them Jesus 
and the resurrection." Was it probable that the pride 
of distinction and learning, in that proudest and most 
brilliant age, was to be subdued by men, of whom 
it is acknowledged that they were neither wise, nor 
mighty, but were selected for their work because 
^^ God hath chosen the foolish things of this world 
to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the 
weak things of this world to confound the things 
that are mighty ; and base things of the world, and 
things that are despised hath God chosen, yea, and 
things that are not, to bring to nought things that 
are, that no flesh should glory in his presence I" 



38 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

And what bribes, what inducements were offered 
them ? They were to take joyfully the spoiling of 
their goods ; to forsake all, and follow Christ ; to 
bear his reproach, and follow him to stripes, im- 
prisonment and death. 

Nor was the reason of their success to be found 
m the pliant and accommodating character of Chris- 
tianity, yielding itself to the claims of Judaism and 
paganism, and easily becoming amalgamated with 
either, or both. So far from this, one of the pecu- 
liar obstacles it had to contend with was, that its 
propagators never fraternized with any of their op- 
posers. The pagans did not object to the idols of 
any nation, provided they would unite in worship- 
ping theirs. The Roman Senate itself expressed a 
willingness to place the statue of Jesus among their 
gods ; but Christianity was not ambitious of this 
honor ; and for her misnamed intolerance, she be- 
came the hated religion. She had and would have 
no fraternity with the idolatry and vices of the age, 
but '' rather reproved'' and stood aloof from all ; and 
was therefore denounced as the unsocial and intol- 
erant religion. 

Nor can it be said, as has been affirmed by the 
historian Gibbon, that their success was to be attri- 
buted to the miraculous powers which were ascribed 
to the primitive church. If these powers were truly 
miraculous, then were these propagators of the Gos- 
pel divinely commissioned, and their message was 
divine. If they were but pretensions to miraculous 
power, and a system of magic and deception, they 



i 



PRELL^IINARY ESSx\Y. 39 

must have made Christianity weak and contemp- 
tible. 

Nor may it be said, that their success is to be at- 
tributed to the fact that Christianity was a persecuted 
religion ; and that because persecution increases the 
interest and zeal of the persecuted party, and rouses 
the sympathy of the people, therefore it might be 
expected that it would make friends by its very per- 
secution. Persecution often destroys the interest of 
the persecuted party. It is contrary to the principles 
of human nature, to suppose that any man embraces 
any system whatever because he is to suffer for it. 
What destroyed the reformed religion in France? 
what prevented its progress in Portugal ? what drove 
the religion that was once introduced into China, 
out of it ? Persecution. What drove it out from the 
valley of the Valteline, once in the possession of 
the Italian Protestants ? In the memorable massacre 
by the Jesuits, Protestantism was crushed, and dis- 
appeared entirely from the valley. Are we not jus- 
tified in saying, that wherever there is sufficient 
persecution to put in requisition, and at the same 
time sustain the confidence and moral courage of 
men, and not to crush it, there it tends to increase 
the persecuted ; but when persecution rises higher 
than this, the effect is just the contrary: the per- 
secuted cannot weather the storm. 

There is not an infidel in the world who believes 
the truth of this objection, or if he does, who believes 
in his own principles. Infidels never tell a man 
whom they would draw over to their views, that he 



40 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

may expect to suffer death for them. We conclude 
then, that seeing they never use this method of mak- 
ing proselytes, they either do not believe their own 
argument, or they teach that which is false. The 
first is contrary to human nature ; the last is con- 
sonant with it. 

Nor is it true, as the accomplished historian be- 
fore referred to asserts, that the unexampled success 
of Christianity in the first ages is attributable to the 
union and discipline of the Christian republic, which 
gradually/ formed an independent and increasing 
State in the heart of the Roman Ew^pire. This union 
was not formed until three hundred years after the 
death of Christ, while the most rapid propagation of 
the Gospel took place during the first century. Alas, 
for Gibbon ! infidel as he was, a superintending Pro- 
vidence so restrained, directed, and controlled his 
pen, that he has furnished the antidote to his own 
poison ; and a careful reader may collect from his 
own pages, what may easily detect and neutralize 
his infidelity. Like Balaam, he ^' could not curse 
whom God hath not cursed ;" nor ^^ defy whom the 
Lord hath not defied." It was the complaint of the 
great enemy of Israel against their false prophet, 
'' I took thee to curse mine enemies, and behold, 
thou hast blessed them altogether!" Nothing is 
more obvious than that, in all those important par- 
ticulars in which secondary causes could have con- 
tributed to the advancement of Christianity, the age 
in which it began its progress was hostile to its suc- 
cess, and everywhere opposed the greatest obstacles 



I 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 4i 

to its triumph ; nor could any secondary causes over- 
come the deep-rooted aversion of both Jews and 
pagans to its claims. 

These general remarks gain the more credibility 
and strength from our own observation of facts. 
Compare the progress of the Gospel among our own 
Aborigines, among the Hindoos and Chinese, with 
the so much greater progress of it in the days of the 
apostles. There are now almost as many advan- 
tages in its favor, as there were then disadvantages 
against it. Yet its progress is less. How is this to 
be explained except by the fact, that the apostles 
did not go alone to their work, but were attended by 
the Spirit of their Divine Master. Christianity was 
introduced at an age of the world, when it would 
Iiave been crushed and annihilated, and absolutely 
still-born, but for its own inherent immutability and 
the presence and guardianship of its heavenly Parent. 
The age itself was fitted to show that there was a 
Divine interposition in behalf of those who propa- 
gated it, and therefore that it is itself divine. On 
any other supposition, than that the men who pro- 
pagated it were under the direction and patron- 
age of Almighty God, their success cannot be 
explained. 

The time when the Saviour came was there- 
fore remarkably fitted to determine, whether his re- 
ligion possessed intrinsic excellence and power, and 
whether its place on the earth could be attributed to 
mere secondary causes, or to the power of God. It 
was remarkably fitted to decide, whether the char- 



42 'i'HE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

acter of its Founder was entitled to respect, vene- 
ration, and love ; whether the witnesses to the facts 
on which it is founded were entitled to credit and 
confidence ; whether they were either madmen, or 
impostors ; whether the doctrines they taught found 
a ready advocate in the bosom of a world that lieth 
in wickedness, or whether, if they carried the hearts 
of men, it must have been owing to the power 
of God ;- — whether the character which Christianity 
formed, and the effects it produced, were such as 
constituted the adornment of man's nature, and 
a virtuous, peaceful, and happy community ; and 
whether there was anything like trick, or manage- 
ment in selecting the period of introducing it to the 
world, so that on this account it should be likely to 
meet with the fewest opposers, and the greatest fa- 
cility of access. Was it the period when the estab- 
lished religions of the earth favored it ; or when it 
was patronized by the laws of the land ; or when 
the m.inds of men had any professed or secret bias 
in its favor ? Or was it a period when it had every- 
thing to contend with that is human, and when, if 
it found a dwelling on the earth, it was because it 
was the offspring of the skies, and had a pla,ce pre- 
pared for it of God ? 

There was most certainly design, and a special 
Providence, in the selection of such a period of the 
world for the introduction of the new religion : a 
religion proclaimed to the race, and to continue to 
the end of time. It was not a period chosen at ran- 
dom, or accidentally hit upon; but one, in the ap- 



I 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 43 

pointment and arrangement of which we may well 
admire the Divine wisdom. No impostor would 
have selected it. It was in every view the fit time 
for the coming of the Great Deliverer. ^^ Ascribe ye 
greatness unto our God ; he is a rock, his work is 
perfect." 

Of the great Saviour it is declared, that ^^all 
things were made by him, and for him ;" and that 
^^he is Head over all things to the Church." Men 
have wondered why the fulfilment of the promise 
in Eden was so long delayed ; but '^ God's thoughts 
are not as our thoughts, nor his ways as our ways." 
We may not now fully see the wisdom of this Divine 
arrangement, and the manifold relations it then sus- 
tained, and sustains still to the honor of the Son of 
God, and the indications it furnishes that he is in- 
deed the One commissioned to perpetuate a spiritual 
kingdom on the earth where he was born and cruci- 
fied. But of this one thing we are assured, that 
that kingdom will be perpetuated, till the whole 
earth shall be filled with his glory. The great 
temple, the laying of the corner-stone of which em- 
ployed four thousand years, is not to be completed 
in a day. Its grandeur and magnificence will bear 
some proportion to those preparatory measures and 
ages, which were but preliminary to its advance- 
ment and completion. It is but eighteen hundred 
years since it was set on its firm foundations ; and 
it has as yet scarcely begun to grow. A great and 
glorious kingdom it is, and will go on increasing in 
extent, in purity, in power, in heavenly splendor, 



44 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

until ^^ the stone cut out of the mountain without 
hands, shall become a great mountain and fill the 
earth." 

The end is not yet. When the day dawns on 
which it shall come, it will witness results such 
as the strongest faith has not fully anticipated. 
The world of matter was made for the world of 
mind; time for eternity; the world for the church; 
all things for the kingdom of Christ. Good for the 
man that he had never been born, who arrays him- 
self in opposition to this kingdom ; who is found 
without its hallowed limits. '^ Behold, ye despisers^ 
and wonder, and perish!" Time flies swiftly; one 
day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a 
thousand years as one day. He testifies, ^' Surely 1 
come quickly ;" and let every heart respond, '' Even 
so, come Lord Jesus." Who will not hail his com- 
ing ; and with the grateful emotions of the sweetest 
of all the sons of song, exclaim, 

" Come then, and added to thy many crowns, 
Receive yet one — ^the crown of all the earth, 
Thou who alone art worthy ! It was thine 
By ancient covenant, ere nature's birth ; 
And thou hast made it thine by purchase since, 
And overpaid its value with thy blood 1" 



ITS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 45 



CHAPTER I. 

THE BIBLE ABOVE THE INVENTION OF THE HUMAN 
INTELLECT. 

We maintain that the Bible is an effect superior 
to any human cause. The first thought by which » 
this position may be substantiated, is the intellectual 
character of this most remarkable volume. 

To say nothing now of its moral characteristics, 
as a production of intellect it is altogether above the 
invention of the human mind. It is not the style 
and outward dress in which its thoughts are clothed, 
of which we speak ; though in these, large portions 
of it stand above all other Avritings. Rich and splen- 
did as is its external attire, its heavenly origin is to 
be sought for rather in the originality, the compre- 
hensiveness, the richness of the thoughts it utters. 
From beginning to end it is, in this respect, a book 
containing ^^ wondrous things." So that ^^the more 
we consider the highest efforts of the human under- 
standing, the more shall we perceive of its feeble- 
ness, and the narrow limits which confine it ; and 
the more also shall we perceive with increasing evi- 
dence, that the Scriptures are the word of God, and 
not of man. "^ 

* Rise of Polytheism and Pantheism. By James Douglass. 



46 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

1. In illastrating this general observation, we be- 
gin with the remark, that the views which the Scrip- 
tures give of the Deity himself ^xe altogether beyond 
the reach of any uninspired mind. Although pure 
Atheism, or the absolute denial of an intelligent First 
Cause, finds no support either in the internal consti- 
tution of the human mind, or the abundant indica- 
tions of design in the exterior universe ; yet is the 
knowledge of the only living and true God to be 
found only in the Sacred Writings. There is no- 
thing which the writers upon Natural Religion have 
demonstrated more clearly, than the insufficiency, 
the absurdity even, of those results to which the 
lights of nature and reason have actually brought 
men as to the character of the Deity. If the views 
of those portions and ages of the world which have 
been destitute of the Bible, may be fairly ascertained 
from the writings of their philosophers, the enact- 
ments of their laws, or their religious rites and 
usages ; not only were their opinions of the Deity 
loose and undefined, but misshapen and preposter- 
ous, and to the last degree stupid. The Bible is the 
only book which furnishes any definite and satisfac- 
tory account of the great First Cause. This great 
thought, everywhere else so obscure that both the 
popular and philosophic theology of the pagan world 
divested the Deity of those properties which are es- 
sential to his nature, is the one which gives to the 
Bible all its meaning, and imparts beauty and power 
to all its revelations. On opening this Book, you 
are carried back to those undiscovered asjes where 



I'l'S INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 47 

the eternal Deity existed alone ; existed everywhere, 
and in the possession of all those attributes which 
constitute him Avhat he is. The image of God is 
never veiled here : the Book itself is full of God. 
His character and claims have here a place vv^hich 
no human composition ever assigned to them ; his 
very existence and supremacy have a place, which is 
in vain looked for in the conceptions of uninspired 
men. We know not whether the views of God 
which are here revealed, are to be the more admired 
or revered : admired for their beauty and loveliness, 
or revered for their greatness and majesty. Heathen 
poets and philosophers have alternately charmed and 
instructed the world on other themes ; on this they 
reasoned and sung not like poets, or philosophers. 

There are three thoughts which relate to the 
Divine nature, to which the mind of man could never 
have attained. The one is the pure spij^ituality of 
the Godhead ; another is his omnipresence ; the third, 
his incomprehensible and mystei^ious Trinity, 

There is nothing in man himself, there is no- 
thing in the visible universe, by which he can make 
any approximation to the idea of pure spirituality. 
The Divine existence is in this respect altogether 
peculiar to itself, and such as man cannot ade- 
quately conceive. The human faculties do not en- 
able us to form anything like an adequate conception 
of the spirituality of the Divine nature, now that it 
is revealed ; much less could they have originated 
this conception. The same may be said of the omni- 
presence of God. The Scriptmes tell us that he fills 



48 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

all space, penetrates all substanceSj pervades all 
minds, and is equally present with each of his 
creatures, and with all of them at the same time. 
Now what human intellect could have revealed this 
truth — a truth so perfectly incomprehensible ? What 
human intellect, unaided by heavenly wisdom, ever 
penned that sublime passage, ^^ Whither shall I go 
from thy Spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy 
presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art 
there : if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art 
there. If I take tlie wings of the morning, and dwell 
in the uttermost parts of the sea ; even there shall 
thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. 
If I say. Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the 
night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness 
hideth not from thee ; but the night shineth as the 
day : the darkness and the light are both alike to 
thee !" 

And what less can be said of the Trinity of the 
Divine existence ? It is a conception that never 
found its counterpart in the invention of creatures. 
The human mind actually cowers before it. Not a 
few, even with the Bible in their hands, are scan- 
dalized by this great truth on account of its mysteri- 
ousness. Yet, so important is it in the system of 
truth contained in the Scriptures, that it not only 
envelopes all its hopes, and enwraps within it all its 
salvation, but without it the Scriptures are an incohe- 
rent system, and absolutely without meaning. Pagan 
lands know no such Deity ; nor is the archetype miy 
where to be found in the history of human thought. 



ITS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 49 

2. There are, in the next place, views presented 
in the Scriptures of the Diviiie purposes^ Vv^hich it is 
impossible for any uninspired mind to have revealed. 

There is the most perfect simplicity in the de- 
signs of God, as they are here disclosed ; yet is there 
a comprehensiveness, a grandeur, an elevation, which 
are not only worthy of the Infinite mind, but which 
none but the Infinite mind could originate. 

Tradition, taking its rise in a supernatural reve- 
lation, gave some obscure intimations of wisdom 
in the government of the world ; but its teachings 
degenerated to absolute absurdity. Philosophy spake 
of a fatalism, which extends its dark and monoto- 
nous decree over all things, and gives to blind con- 
tingency a sort of universal dominion ; and such 
conceptions may well be supposed to have men for 
their authors. The Scriptures disclose those eternal 
and unchanging counsels of the uncreated Deity, 
which delineate beforehand all his dispensations, 
mark out the course and progress of all his operations 
and government, and trace his entire work from one 
stage of it to another ; which, from the beginning, 
comprised whatsoever comes to pass in his proposed 
universe; and which, in their progressive fulfilment, 
constitute the counterpart of the matchless wisdom 
that formed them before ever the world was. This is 
the starting point, if I may so speak, of all the opera- 
tions of the Divine mind ; the threshold of the tem- 
ple to which the Scriptures introduce us, and where 
their strong and steady light begins to shine. 

In their developement of these comprehensive 

Bible not of Man. Q 



50 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

purposes they conduct us not only through the suc- 
cessive ages of this lower world, but, leaving these 
great and measured epochs of time, penetrate indefi- 
nitely and interminably into the vast future. They 
do not fully draw aside the curtain, and tell us what 
these purposes are ; nor do they, save in part, dis- 
close to us the particular reasons of very many of 
the Divine counsels ; yet do they explicitly instruct 
us that they all cooperate in securing ends with 
which Infinite Avisdom and goodness are satisfied. 

Pagan writers knew nothing of such a range of 
thought as this : the human mind knows nothing of 
it. It is utterly beyond man's invention ; it is a sys- 
tem, an outline of procedure which human thoughts 
never would have compassed ; nor would it ever 
have been known but for a revelation from Heaven. 
No creature could thus enter into the deep retirement 
of God's eternity, penetrate into the mind of God. 
and tell the world his secret counsels. Search the 
speculations of all pagan philosophy, inquire at all 
its oracles, and they speak not, think not of those 
all-comprehensive counsels, with which the Sacred 
Writings are so familiar. These counsels have a 
. vastness of extent, a coherency and symmetry, an 
all-presiding intelligence, which defy the utmost 
efi'orts of the human mind. Not only were they a 
sealed book, the contents of which are unknown to 
mortals, but no mortal could have known that a 
scheme so vast had a place in the Eternal mind. 

3. The same indications of a Divine intelligence 
are also discernible in the account the Scriptures 



ITS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 51 

give of the ivork of creation. On this topic the Bible 
speaks with a definiteness and precision unknown 
to pagan writers, and compared with which the sys- 
tems of pagan cosmogony are the wildest conjecture, 
and as impure and corrupting as they are uninteUi- 
gible. Human reason has never been able to in- 
struct men how this world came into existence. 
More than one system of philosophy has sprung up 
in the world, which endeavored to show that it could 
exist, and even how it could be made, without God. 
Strange as it may seem, all the ancient philosophers 
discarded the idea of creation in the sense in which 
it is generally understood by Christians. They held 
it to be impossible ; it was a received axiom with 
them, that nothing can be produced out of nothing. 
On this principle, all that they allowed to the Divine 
agency was '^ the arrangement of preexisting mate- 
rials, and the moulding of an external, material sub- 
stance, into the form which it now exhibits in the 
visible universe." Nor is there any certain relief from 
this, and other such like metaphysical jargon, but in 
the simple narrative of the creation as given in the 
Scriptures. No uninspired pen ever recorded the 
sentence, '^ In the beginning, God created the hea- 
vens and the earth." It was a progressive work, 
and was finished in exact accordance with the plan 
of its Author. Its progress too was in exact coinci- 
dence with those laws of matter which have been 
found to exist throughout the material universe ; tlie 
laws then enstamped upon it govern it still. They 
are ^^ ordinances of heaven ;" nor in all the progress 



52 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

of natural science have any discoveries been made, 
which are inconsistent with the simple and beautiful 
narrative given by Moses. 

The creation of which the Bible speaks is unique 
and perfect ; it has no disjoined and irrelevant parts ; 
there is a place for everything, and everything is in 
its place ; the less is made subservient to the greater, 
the material to the animal, the animal to the moral, 
and all to God. In a moral view, it possesses a beauty 
and glory which would never have suggested them- 
selves to a created mind. It has its world of proba- 
tion, and its worlds of retribution and recompense : 
the former, this material visible system, which is 
destined to come to an end ; the two latter, the abode 
of those spiritual and immortal existences, never to 
pass away. These three worlds constitute a moral 
systerrij the numberless and various parts of which, 
while they exhibit strong points of contrast, are yet 
so related and combined, that each part exerts a re- 
ciprocal agency and influence, and all form one great 
whole. The first chapter in the Book of Genesis is 
truly a wonderful composition. '• The very first 
verse is impressed with the stamp of its Divine Origi- 
nal : the reception of it alone would have overturned 
all the fundamental errors which perplexed the phi- 
!osophy of Greece, and not of Greece only, but of all 
countries not enlightened by revelation."^ 

Let any one read the Chaldean account of the 
creation, as given by Berosus ; the Phoenician, by 

* Douglass on the rise of Polytlieism and Pantheism. 



II 



ITS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 53 

Sanchoniathon ; the Egyptian, by Diodorus Siculus ; 
and the Grecian, by Hesiod, and he will be convinced 
that it is not too much to say, what Dr. Scott has 
said in his preface to his Commentary, that ^^ in the 
first page of this sacred Book, a child may learn in 
one hour more than all the philosophers in the world 
learned without it in a thousand years." 

4. From the work of creation, let us advert, in 
the next place, to the account which the Scriptures 
furnish of the works of Providence, There are indi- 
cations here of intellect that is more than human. 
There are some remarkable features in the arrange- 
ments of Divine Providence, as here disclosed, of 
which the pagan world was itself ignorant, and which 
no uninspired mind could have known. There is, for 
example, a general providence, as expressed in the 
established lav/s of nature ; so that men in the ordi- 
nary affairs of human life may count on these well- 
known principles of the Divine government, and 
form their plans with hope and confidence. And 
there is a special providence, in which the Most 
High, who ruleth among the children of men, may 
and does, in perfect consistency with the laws of a 
general providence, countervail the designs of his 
creatures by accomplishing his own, and thus main- 
tain and demonstrate his perfect supremacy over all 
the affairs of men. There is ^^ a wheel within a 
wheel ;" a seeming complexness, yet the most per- 
fect simplicity ; for '^ the Spirit of the Living One 
is in the wheels." 

There are also the two departments of Equity 



54 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

and Sovereignty, of Moral influence and Royal pre- 
rogative : — this, giving God the throne, and securing 
the fulfilment of all his purposes ; that, securing the 
rights of moral government, and rendering them 
harmonious with a Divine supremacy the most ab- 
solute. The claims of sovereignty never interfere 
with those of equity, while the claims of equity never 
jostle the throne. Equity and sovereignty run in 
different, yet in parallel lines, each standing abreast 
of the other ; both indicating the ways of God to 
man — ^both the adornment, the strength of the Di- 
vine empire. Growing out of these obvious and 
beautiful principles, is the truth everywhere taught 
in the Scriptures, that men are dependent, yet free ; 
acting, yet acted upon ; fulfilling the Divine pur- 
poses, yet responsible. In these revealed features of 
God's government there is wonderful wisdom — wis- 
dom altogether above the wisdom of creatures ; and 
we may well say concerning them, ^' Who hath 
known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his 
counsellor?^' A late Scottish writer, in a review of 
the character and writings of the German philoso- 
pher Leibnitz, remarks, that ^- this combination of 
freedom with Divine and dependent agency includes 
something without the limits of the human facul- 
ties." And the substance of this acknowledgment 
has been made by some of the most powerful minds 
that have written upon this vexed question. These 
balance-wheels in the moral machinery were in- 
vented by a Divine Architect, and are too nicely ad- 
justed to be any other workmanship than his. Thus 



ITS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 55 

to reconcile the apparent inequalities, and seeming 
incongruities in the Divine government, is not a de- 
vice of creatures ; it is an arrangement which be- 
speaks a master mind — the Master Mind of the 
universe. What the wisdom of man has never been 
able to harmonize by all the speculations of philoso- 
phy, the Bible harmonizes. Truths which have 
ever been paradoxical, and which have shrouded the 
highest created intellects in darkness — like the seem- 
ing incongruous elements which compose the atmo- 
sphere — are here adjusted with a simplicity, a skill, 
that indicate '^ihe unsearchable wisdom of God." 

Nor is the fact to be overlooked, that in the 
method of God's providence, as disclosed in the Scrip- 
tures, very many of the reasoiis of it are held in abey- 
ance. It is the glory of God to conceal, as well as to 
disclose : he dwelleth in the thick darkness ; his judg- 
ments are a great deep ; his pavilion are dark waters, 
and thick clouds of the skies. ^^ It were difficult to 
say, whether his wisdom appears more in what he 
unfolds, or in what he conceals. The unveiled 
lustre of his throne would obscure the dim vision of 
creatures." To creatures of yesterday, he makes 
darkness his dwelling-place, if for no other reason 
than that he dwells in light that is inaccessible and 
full of glory. Such is not the manner of man. Of 
all these features of an all-governing Providence, 
may it not be safely affirmed that no human pencil 
ever delineated them ? This blending of apparently 
contradictory principles in the Divine government, 
this ^temperature of mingled light and obscurity," 



56 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

all so wonderfully fitted to produce in the minds of 
fallen creatures the most suitable impressions of the 
Divine greatness and excellencCj is the work of God 
alone. It is just like God. It is assimilated to the 
revelations he has made of himself elsewhere ; it is 
one of the characteristics of his Word which ele- 
vates it above the reach of human invention. 

5. But if the Scriptural accounts of these sub- 
ordinate truths give the Sacred Writings this high 
preeminence, much more do they claim it from the 
view they present of the still greater^ and greatest 
truth they reveal — the redemption of man. In the 
centre of the system which this Book reveals, stands 
forth this great work of redeeming mercy, as the 
^' mystery which was hid from ages," as the wonder 
and admiration of all intelligent beings. The Scrip- 
tures represent this as the great work of God ; the 
Avork to which all the works of creation and Provi- 
vjdence are subservient; the work to which the 
past looked forward with eager anticipation, which 
the present surveys with wonder, which the future 
will look back upon with overwhelming astonish- 
ment. It was not an after-thought, growing out of 
the disappointed expectation of the Creator in the 
formation of man ; nor was it a thought incidental 
to the government which he had established over a 
world of fallen and still responsible creatures. It 
was the great forethought of the Divine mind ; it is 
the one great thought revealed in his Word. 

There are several strong features of peculiarity 
in this redemption, which remove it altogether be- 



ITS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 57 

yond the limits of human invention. We do not 
say that it is impossible, or even improbable, that 
the human mind might have thought of some me- 
thod of recovery ; but never would it have thought 
of such a method as that revealed in the Scriptures. 
It would have been a method of arbitrary mercy, 
without any satisfaction to the violated law ; it 
would have extended itself to one man as well as 
another, and comprised the entire race. It would 
have unfolded no such features, either of the Divine 
justice or sovereignty, as are unfolded in the Gos- 
pel of the Son of God. Had men devised this 
restoring economy, it had been human like them- 
selves. Philosophy would have theorized about it ; 
it would have been sanctioned by the wisdom of 
this world ; but it would never have been that high 
and wonderful arrangement which extorts the ex 
clamation, ^' O the depth of the riches both of the 
wisdom and the knowledge of God !'' The proposal 
of a method of recovery for fallen men, to the ex- 
clusion of fallen angels, was itself a novelty in the 
history of the Divine government. Human reason 
would scarcely have passed by those immortal 
princes of the Divine kingdom, those once pure and 
incorporeal spirits of his heavenly court, whose only 
employment had been to adore, love, and praise his 
sovereign greatness and goodness. 

The facts and principles embodied in this redemp- 
tion are indeed welcome, but they are altogether 
singular; they are glad tidings of great joy, but 
they were new and unexpected. They reveal high 

Bible not of Man. 3# 



58 TPIE BIBLE ISOT OF MAN. 

and marvellous ends — ends that would have been 
overlooked by meUj and especially by impostors. 

And we say, almost without the fear of contra- 
diction from infidels themselves, that the means by 
which this redemption was accomplished, were too 
marvellous ever to have been the subject of the re- 
motest, the most faint conjecture, by the wisest and 
best of our race. They were strange, they were 
mysterious means, and comprised truths which could 
have originated only in the counsels of Heaven. The 
union of the Divine and human natures in the Re- 
deemer's person, is a fact which Avould never have 
been thought of by men. Even now that it is re- 
vealed, it cannot be brought within the sphere of 
human comprehension, and questions may be pro- 
pounded concerning it which human reason cannot 
answer. God becomes man ; the Creator becomes 
a creature ; the great Lawgiver becomes a subject ; 
the injured, insulted Majesty of heaven, himself be- 
comes the incarnate Saviour ! 

The manner too in which he became incarnate, 
is not merely mysterious, but has no example, and 
never can have any imitation. He united himself 
with that unequalled individual of our race, who 
was born of a Virgin ; he was •• made of a woman," 
yet a woman of virgin purity. There is no greater 
miracle than his imm^aculate conception ; and it is a 
sort of miracle which mocks the invention of an im- 
postor. It was the miraculous creation of the human 
nature of Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary. I 
ask infidels themselves, >vhether such a fact as this— 



ITS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 59 

a fact so far beyond the uniform laws of nature, 
that the thought would never once have floated in 
the impure imagination of man — was not a pheno- 
menon, which it is in the last degree puerile to sup- 
pose ever formed a part of fictitious story ? 

Pagan mythology does indeed speak of incarnate 
deities ; while their fabulous and grossly polluted, 
and polluting notions of deities incarnate, evince their 
utter incompetency to have invented the miraculous 
conception of Mary's child. Every classical scholar 
knows that it was not thus that pagan deities became 
incarnate. Their notions of incarnate gods were pro- 
bably derived from those traditions of which the 
Scriptures are the origin ; but they fashioned them 
according to their own vile minds. 

Nor is this all. The incarnate gods of the hea- 
then were infinitely unlike the man Christ Jesus. 
He was spotless and pure ; a Lamb without blemish, 
from the cradle to the grave. His vile betrayer, 
though admitted to all the fan^iliarities of unem- 
barrassed friendship, could not impeach his sinless 
integrity. Even in the eye of Infinite purity was he 
without sin. Heathen writers have described no 
such character ; history has none like it ; tradition 
has none ; fancy has none ; and deception and im- 
posture have none. Poetry and romance, witli all 
their inventive powers, have never been able to 
portray a character like that which the evangelists 
so simply, and so true to nature, have given of the 
Virgin's Son. 

Nor need we stop here. If from the birth and 



go THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

life of JesuSj we advert to the catastrophe of his 
cross, our convictions are confirmed that it is no hu- 
man tale of woe. This incarnate One, so holy and 
harmless, came not to reign, not to be worshipped, 
but to suffer — to die : to lay the foundation of his 
kingdom in his own sufferings and death. The 
fabulous gods and goddesses of the pagan Avorld, 
have united themselves with men for the purposes 
of loyalty and dominion ; for the tranquillity of pas- 
toral joys, and effeminate luxury ; but never to suf- 
fer and die. 

Nor was it simply to suffer and die, that he be- 
came thus incarnate. It was to die, the just in the 
place of the unjust — the sinless for the sinful— the 
substitution of the innocent for the guilty. To save 
the law of God harmless, he submitted himself to 
the penalty which man had incurred, and ^' bare our 
sins in his own body on the tree." Now I ask, if in 
all this there be not the most emphatic indications 
of profound and unsearchable wisdom ? Is not this, 
from beginning to end, altogether a procedure so 
remote from the apprehensions of men, as to forbid 
the possibility that it was of human fabrication ? 

We make the appeal to reason, to common sense, 
whether it is possible for the human mind to con- 
ceive that such a redemption is the design of man. 
Taking all the objects and parts of it together, is 
there any greater absurdity than to suppose it of hu- 
man origin ? Is not this a region of thought where 
the foot of man never trod ? Would not the bright- 
est minds the world has seen, and the brightest ages 



ITS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 61 

that have dawned upon it, have been baffled, ex- 
hausted, annihilated, in the attempt at such a dis- 
covery ? Would they not have lived, and toiled, and 
suffered, and died without it, as the pagan did live, 
and toil, and suffer, and die ? 

6. Take another thought. The Bible is a whole; 
it contains no isolated event, no isolated truth is 
revealed in its sacred pages. From the creation of 
the world of angelic beings and the formation of 
man, to the entire apostacy of the one, and the 
partial apostacy of the other ; from the early reve- 
lation of the promise in Eden, to the winding up 
of this great remedial economy ; everything forms a 
part of one great whole, the interest of which is per- 
petually increasing as the stupendous plan advances 
to its close. In the progress of this amazing proce- 
dure, the glories of creation and Providence are more 
and more concentrated in the greater glories of this 
redemption — itself never once deviating from its 
most prominent and important place in the system 
of God's administrations. The sufferer of Calvary 
is ever the master-spirit of the whole ; the all-per- 
vading Deity, everywhere and always directing and 
governing, for the purposes for which he suffered 
aiid died. The cross of Christ is ever the centre, 
from the beginning of time to its close ; from the 
song of the morning stars at the birth of this lower 
creation, to the voice of the archangel and the trump 
of God, when this lower creation shall pass away. 
So that the three worlds of which we have spoken, 
thus created, thus governed, and one of them thus 



62 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

redeemed, compose, if I may so speak, the materials 
of a vast moral drama ; the issues of which, though 
gradually developing, are to be fully developed only 
at that great crisis when time ends, and eternity be- 
gins. In this vast drama, the three glorious Persons 
in the ever-blessed Trinity — angels, fallen and un- 
fallen — and men fallen and redeemed, are both the 
actors and the witnesses. The interests involved in 
it are the highest interests of every immortal being ; 
its conflicts the great moral conflict of the universe ; 
its triumphs the triumphs of truth and goodness. In 
its progress darkness and error, sin and misery, are 
gradually retiring and being subdued ; death is anni- 
hilated, while light, truth, holiness and happiness, 
become more and more triumphant, up to the time 
when '' the mystery of God is perfected," and the 
redeemed and unfallen universe commences a new 
and eternal era of obedience and praise. 

The single fact of the resurrection of the body- 
that heavy clog and incumbrance of the soul, which 
the religion of nature and the writings of human 
reason consign to the dust, which sense locks up in 
the dark sepulchre, and which natural science scat- 
ters to the winds, ingulfs in the waters, sees rarefied 
into smoke and vapor, and in a thousand combina- 
tions entering into and forming a part of the vege- 
table and animal tribes — is itself a thought too won- 
derful for the human mind ever to have originated. 
No wonder that the learned men of Greece scoffed 
and mocked when Paul announced it in the Areopa- 
gus of Athens. Yet the Scriptures tell us, that at 



i 



ITS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. b3 

the sounding of the last trumpet, all the bodies of 
countless generations, all over the earth and from 
the depths of the sea, shall come forth. Next to 
Deity assuming his form of humanity, this is the 
wonder of all wonders. 

What scenes will be disclosed when the cur- 
tain is drawn upon the opening ages of the coming 
eternity ! The sun shall be turned into darkness, 
and the moon into blood ; the stars shall fade, and 
the frame of this lower world be dissolved. The 
dead shall be summoned from their graves, and a 
risen world brought forth from the sepulchre of ages, 
to appear at his bar who expired on the cross. 

The attending universe shall stand spectators of 
scenes, in which they themselves have been and are 
the actors ; the Redeeming God shall be glorified in 
his saints, and admired in all them that believe ; and 
then the end shall come — the final, the unalterable 
eternity. The earth shall be burnt up and the hea- 
vens dissolved. The wicked shall go away into 
everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life 
eternal. 

O what events are these, to have taken rise in 
the narrow conceptions of men ! What a range of 
thought is here ! Can the Book, which reveals 
such things as these, be the w^ork of man? Does 
not the disclosure of such realities carry home to 
our bosoms the firm and solid conviction, that it is 
from the revealing Spirit who '^ searcheth all things, 
even the deep things of God?" Does it not defy 
the utmost efforts of our limited faculties? And 



64 ' THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

if human minds and human pens were employed 
to make such disclosures, is it not obvious that 
they were minds and pens '^ moved by the Holy 
Ghost?" 

7. Another thought which illustrates the position 
on which we are dwelling, is the inexhaustible fal- 
7iess of the Sacred Writings. We can furnish bat 
a bare suggestion on this rich and varied topic, to be 
traced out and amplified, as it may present itself in 
different lights and forms to different minds. The 
Bible is, in this respect, a most wonderful volume. 
There is nothing like it in the wide world ; no such 
source of intellectual wealth : itself never exhausted, 
yet exhausting the brightest, strongest, and most po- 
tent minds, A candid mind, that has been prepos- 
sessed against it, needs but to read it, in order to 
confess with shame that it has disappointed its pre- 
judices, and that it is enriched with thoughts alto- 
gether beyond any other volume. 

There are thoughts in this sacred Book, which 
though perfectly obvious when seen, are not seen on 
the first or the second inspection, even though that 
inspection be ever so full. Instances of this kind so 
frequently occur, that they are continually sources 
of surprise and admiration even to the most reflect- 
ing minds. It is wonderful to observe, what new 
trains of thought of prodigious interest are often 
suggested by a single sentence, a single fact recorded 
in the Bible ; a word, a date, not before observed, or 
not understood, or viewed in some new aspect. 
The Bible seems, in this respect, almost like en- 



ITS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 65 

chanted ground ; or rather, like the embowered pre- 
cincts of some unearthly world. As we pass over its 
luxuriant plains, and tread its wide and accustomed 
avenues, we unexpectedly discover a thousand less 
frequented paths that open views — views of inde- 
scribable richness and beauty — that are new and im- 
measurable. It is difficult if not impossible to re- 
sist the impression, that the light which shines upon 
us is from no earthly source, but beams from the 
Infinite Intelligence above us. The mind is never 
weary in tracing out these opening vistas of truth, 
except from its own infirmity ; and even when thus 
wearied, may always recover and refresh itself at 
unwasting fountains, scattered by the wayside, and 
everywhere overhung by the dense shadow of the 
Tree of Life. 

We do not find it so with any other book. This 
is one of the great peculiarities of the Bible ; it is an 
exhaustless volume. Viewed as a whole, it is like 
the full-orbed sun ; which though it may have spots 
on its disk, dazzles by its splendor ; and the more we 
gaze upon it, and the more its light emanates and is 
difi*used, the more do its resources appear unwasting. 
Portions of this Book seem deep and unfathomable *, 
but even its deepest recesses are neither empty nor 
dark. It is a vast profound, which lies open to the 
day ; where, though reason's lamp alone were dark- 
ness, yet the deeper it descends, it not only encoun- 
ters no noxious vapors, but, as in a mine of jewels, in 
every discovered gem it receives back the reflected 
light of heaven. There is no other book which a 



(36 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

few careful readings of a sound and retentive mind 
will not exhaust. Yet men there are, who have 
made this volume the object of their study for half 
a century ; who have examined every paragraph it j 
contains with repeated and closest scrutiny, and with 
every fresh perusal have discovered new thoughts, 
and new causes for wonder and joy. The more 
deeply they have become absorbed in its pages, the 
more deep and thorough has been their conviction 
of its illimitable resources — a conviction uniformly 
strengthened by their growing acquaintance with 
its instructions, and by all the effort and honesty^ 
the humility and prayer, they have been-enabled to 
bring to their researches. 

There was an humble fisherman on the lakes of 
Palestine, who wrote a short treatise, so replete with 
heavenly truth, that Archbishop Leighton, whom 
Dr. Doddridge calls ^^ that wonderful man," em- 
ployed years of intense and delighted labor in illus- 
trating the rich and heart-aifecting lessons it con- 
tains — lessons, which furnished even the splendid 
mind of Coleridge with many of those ^^ aphorisms " 
which form the bases of his far-famed ^- Aids to Re- 
flection." Nor do the Epistles of Peter stand alone 
as exhibitions of intellectual vigor and richness, to 
which m.inds unaided by the Holy Spirit never as- 
pired. There is no book in any age, in any coun- 
try, which can, in this respect, be compared with 
the Bible. It has very little in common with other 
books : aside from some of its genealogical records, 
it lias borrowed nothing from them ; while it is the 



ITS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 67 

iiiexhausted, inexhaustible source from which every- 
thing that is truly valuable, on the great subjects of 
which it treats, is derived. 

8. There is one general remark which should be 
carried along in the mind of the reader, with all the 
preceding considerations. It relates to the intellect 
tual character of the writers^ and of the age in which 
the Bible was written. It was written, for the most 
part, by men of no extraordinary talents or learning. 
With a few distinguished exceptions, they were plain 
shepherds, and humble, illiterate fishermen. But 
they wrote as never man wrote, on themes of bound- 
less extent, illimitable grandeur, thrilling interest, 
'^and never fall below their lofty theme.'' They 
use the language of men, because they are men to 
whom they address themselves ; and because Infinite 
wisdom and goodness are wont to stoop thus low, 
do they condescend to all the varieties of human 
want and degradation, and in so doing seem, to a 
superficial reader, occasionally to descend to instruc- 
tions that are unworthy of their elevated objects. 
Those very portions of their writings with which 
infidels have so often made themselves merry, were 
most wisely suited to the exigences of the times and 
people to whom they were addressed. And moreover, 
the books which contain them form the first and ear- 
liest literary productions in the world. Nor is it a cir- 
cumstance to be overlooked, that although thus writ- 
ten in the very infancy of letters, and standing alone 
as they do at the close of the first fifteen centuries 
after the creation, they should, by the common (^.on- 



68 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

sent of literary men, hold the acknowledged preemi- 
nence. Moses, their author, and whom we affirm to 
have been divinely inspired, died about fourteen hun- 
dred and forty years before Christ ; nor are there any 
human writings known to us until long after his time. 
Yet Assyria, Phoenicia, and Egypt were not without 
science and the arts, and the latter not without hiero- 
glyphical writing. Between the time of Moses and 
David, there is, I believe, but a single author with- 
out the pale of the Israelitish prophets. I refer to 
Sanchoniathon, the Phoenician historian, who flour- 
ished about the time that Gideon was the Judge in 
Israel. These facts are not, we confess, convincing 
evidence of themselves that the five books of Moses 
are of divine origin ; while, taken in connection with 
the subject matter of these books, their immeasur- 
able superiority to the acknowledged writings of 
men, and the fact that they claim to be of more 
than mere human authority, they are of consequence 
to the argument in favor of their inspiration. 

With regard to other portions of these writings, 
the learned reader will bear in mind a remark of a 
difl'erent kind. The greater part of those which are 
subsequent to the five books of Moses, were written 
during those periods of the world when men of gi- 
gantic intellect, and high literary fame, appeared in 
pagan lands. They were men who claim the ad- 
miration of succeeding ages, and whose works have 
come down to our own times. Homer flourished in 
the days of Solomon ; Hesiod^ not far from the time 
of Joel, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah ; Sappho^ during 



ITS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER. 69 

the time of Habakkuk and Daniel ; Solon and Anac" 
reon^ during the life of Ezekiel ; Pindar^ in the 
days of Haggai and Zechariah ; Eschylus^ Socrates , 
Zeno and Herodotus^ in the age of Haggai, T^^Qh.- 
ariah and Ezra. The splendid writers of the Peric- 
lean age of Greece, and the Augustan age of Rome, 
all flourished between the period of the later minor 
prophets and the close of the first century of the 
Christian era. 

There are high embellishments of taste, and un- 
wonted inventions of a creative imagination, in the 
writings of some of the pagan poets ; there are in- 
deed bewitching fascinations ; but they are not the 
fascinations of thought^ of truth. Compared with 
the riches of truth, the luxury of thought, which are 
to be found in the writings of their contemporaries 
in the sacred volume, or even with the descriptive 
powers that are there developed, the Greek and Ro- 
man classics are but highly-wrought fables. 

But we need not pursue these reflections. The 
benevolent Creator has endued man with large 
powers of thought and achievement ; yet are there 
deeds he cannot perform, and thoughts to which his 
aspiring mind is unequal. They are not human 
thoughts, nor do they come under the range of hu- 
man powers, that are revealed in the Bible. It is 
not the light of any created intellect which thus de- 
velopes and brings out the works and ways of God, 
from the dawn of time down to the setting sun of 
this earthly sphere. Books multiply, and libraries 
accumulate through his capacity and toil ; yet is 



70 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN, 

there this one Book, which transcends the highest 
efforts of his giant intellect. His severest toil has 
never penetrated so deep, his loftiest powers have 
never soared so high, as these illimitable boundaries 
of uncreated thought. The Avorks of men bear no 
more comparison to this great work of Infinite Intel- 
ligencCj than a particle of vapor does to the ocean, 
or the flight of a moment to eternity. It is at such 
a vast remove frota all the conceptions of created 
wisdom, that the credulity is not to be envied which 
looks upon it as a book of imposture, or the inven- 
tion of uninspired men, or in any other view than as 
exhibiting the permanent and fixed impression of the 
wondrous Deity. 

In the order of time, we take then our first stand 
here ; and claim for this Book, the tribute due to 
more than human intelligence. We ask the might- 
iest intellects of earth to spread it before them, and 
tell us when and Vv^here it has been equalled, and if 
it partakes not of the infinite character of Him that 
inhabiteth eternity, and of that eternity which it re- 
veals ? We ask them, as they travel over the rich 
and variegated domain of science and philosophy, if 
they anywhere find such intellectual riches ; and if 
there be not here heights and depths, plains, foun- 
tains, and oceans of thought, the wonders of which 
mem cannot find terms to express, while his highest 
conceptions of them leave these wonders unex- 
plored ? 



ITS SPIRIT SUPERHUMAN. 7| 



-CHAPTER II. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE BIBLE A SUPERHUMAN SPIRIT. 

Human authors leave the impress of their char- 
acter upon their works. No human volume was 
ever written, that does not itself show that it is hu- 
man. The best spirit and the purest motives that 
ever guided the pen of man, have been discolored 
and tinged by the obvious frailties of humanity. 
The works even of such men as Richard Baxter, 
Jonathan Edwards, and Robert Hall, discover the 
imperfections common to good men ; while, at the 
same time, in reading the productions of such au- 
thors, we feel that we are holding intercourse with 
minds and hearts that were the adornments of their 
race. We not only find ourselves ranging rich fields 
of thought, but we breathe the atmosphere of sin- 
cerity and kindness ; we are refreshed with fruits 
plucked for us from the Tree of Life. When, on the 
other hand, we read the works of such men as Vol- 
taire, Hume, and Byron, the first and predominant 
feeling which arises in our bosoms is the admira- 
tion of high talent prostituted to vile ends ; we are 
revolted by their cold and remorseless selfishness 
and pride. If they interest us, it is because they in- 
terest our weaknesses and faults ; if they conduct us 



72 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

sometimes to a clear and mountain atmosphere, it 
chills us ; if sometimes into low and marshy grounds, 
it is to diffuse an offensive and infectious miasma ; 
and if sometimes they invite us to repose, it is un- 
der shadows which, like the branches of the Upas, 
distil poison upon us, and invite us to the sleep of 
death. The most imposing efforts of intellect are 
but ^^ splendid sins " where they originate in a wrong 
spirit, and are not controlled by the love of God and 
man. Where selfishness and pride, deceit and malig- 
nity, are the presiding genius, nothing is more to be 
dreaded than preeminent intellectual endowments. 

It is not more true, that the Bible is too great 
ever to have been the invention of the human intel- 
lect, than that it is too good a book ever to have orig- 
inated with the human heart. Infinite intelligence 
is not more certainly the exclusive attribute of the 
^' God only wise," than unmingled, infinite goodness 
belongs only to him ^Hvhose nature and whose name 
are Love." His intelligence renders him great; his 
goodness bespeaks him amiable and lovely. They 
are not so much the bright, far-reaching thoughts 
of his mighty intellect, flowing as they do, clear as 
crystal from the uncreated Fountain, that so much 
interest us, as the brighter and purer emotions of 
his wonderful love, flowing as they do, and spark- 
ling as they flow, in rivers of life from that eternal, 
immense ocean of kindness, which no line can 
fathom, and which is bounded by no shore. 

Deism rests its whole system of unbelief in the 
Sacred Scriptures upon the fact that God is good ; 



ITS SPIRIT SUPERHUMAN. 73 

while it is from tlie same premises that, as believers 
in divine revelation, we deduce the conclusion that 
they have God for their author. If this is God's 
Bible, it is not merely a revelation of the mind and 
intelligence of God, it is a peculiar cast of intelli- 
gence ; a peculiar spirit ; a spirit to Avhich the un- 
aided mind of man never attained; and which, 
though partially infused into the works of uninspired 
men, was first infused into this parent reservoir. It 
is the intrinsic goodness, the inherent loveliness of 
the Bible, that gives it its preeminence. The spirit 
of this Book is the spirit of love and kindness, of 
benignity and good will ; it is a disposition which 
delights in contributing to the happiness of others ; 
which exercises itself in directing men to the true 
sources of happiness, in gratifying their best wishes, 
supplying their wants, alleviating their distresses, 
shielding them from the dangers to which they are 
exposed, and consulting their highest good upon the 
largest scale, both for the life that now is, and that 
which is to come. This is its uniform turn of 
thought. Goodness is luminous on every leaf; it 
transpires in every paragraph ; it breathes itself 
throughout the whole; and though to an unintelli- 
gent reader, and to a perverted mind, it may some- 
times be obscured, yet does this peerless spirit 
become more obvious with every intelligent and 
ingenuous view of its pages. 

1. In illustrating these general observations we 
remark, in the first instance, that this peculiar spirit 
of the Bible appears in its precepts and truths, 

Bible not of Man. A 



j^ THE BIBLE NOT OF UMS. 

There is a single affection of the heart which ex- 
hausts all its precepts. " Love is the fulfilling of 
the law." Within the comprehensive range of this 
single affection is found all that is amiable and bene- 
volent ; all that gives joy to the bosom that fosters 
it ; all that transforms the world in which we dwell 
from the chaos which it is, to the paradise which it 
should be. There is nothing here that is ungener- 
ous and mean, nothing dark and suspicious, nothing 
selfish and solitary, nothing overbearing and con- 
temptuous, nothing that is implacable and cruel. It 
is the spirit of gentleness in opposition to violence, 
blessing in opposition to cursing, pity in opposition 
to contempt, meekness and loveliness in opposition 
to haughtiness, patience in opposition to rashness 
and insult, forgiveness in opposition to \vrong and 
injury, love in opposition to hatred. Here are all 
those sweet sympathies which not only tranquillize 
the stormy passions, but, like flowers that skirt the 
snow-clad mountain tops, show the power of heav- 
enly truth upon the soul, melting away its cold indif- 
ference, and cheering the chilled traveller in his wea- 
ried way. There is not one among all its truths that 
does not fall in with this delightful spirit. The de- 
sign and tendency of the most humbling of them is 
to produce a spirit of love, and a loveliness of spirit, 
such as no other truths produce. There is nothing 
in them that is revolting, save to a selfish and nar- 
row mind ; they have no Avayward spirit, but all their 
aim and tendency are to subdue the wayward spirit 
of men. They form a sort of mould, into Avhich, 



ITS SPIRIT SUPERHUMAN. 75 

when the heart of man is cast, the rough ore is melted 
and transformed, and comes out with streaks and 
layers of gold. The mighty Agent in this wondrous 
transformation records the blessedness of his own 
work in the memorable sentence, ^^ The fruit of the 
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, meekness, temperance." Deceivers there 
have been among those who professed to be influ- 
enced by it ; deceived and enthusiasts there have 
been, carried away by a warmed and overweening 
imagination, who, like the stony-ground hearers, re- 
ceived the word with joy only for a time ; imperfect 
men there are, and have been, and will be, who not- 
withstanding its benign influence show that the root 
of bitterness is not altogether eradicated ; while there 
are millions who, in all sobriety of thought, have 
felt and proved its power in making them bright 
patterns of its benevolent spirit. Its object is to im- 
press upon the mind its own image, imbue it with 
all that is affectionate and kind, and perpetuate a 
habit and temper of mind, which are as far above 
this world as the heavens are above the earth. 

2. It deserves remark too, that this peculiar spirit 
is most emphatically expressed in all its tenderness, 
when and where it is most needed. There are pe- 
riods in every man's history, when the accents of 
love are winning accents ; when the voice of tender- 
ness reaches the deep recesses of his woe ; and when, 
like the harp of David upon the agitated mind of 
Saul, it charms the evil spirit within the soul. Such 
is the Bible in those periods of discomfort, depres- 



76 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

sion and darkness, which are superinduced by man's 
condition, and which are not a little peculiar in dif- 
ferent stages of his moral career. Extending its 
views far beyond the horizon of human vision, and its 
sympathies far beyond the sympathies of earth, not 
only is it a messenger of love, but fits its relief, and 
times its counsels, to the exigences of human woe. 
To the unblest millions in pagan lands, its mes- 
sage is, ^' Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye 
ends of the earth ; for I am God, and there is none 
else!" To the obdurate and stout-hearted, its mes- 
sage is, ^^ Hearken unto me, ye that are stout-hearted 
and far from righteousness ; behold, I bring near my 
righteousness, and my salvation shall not tarry." To 
restless pride, and wearied self-righteousness, and 
ceremonial superstition, it says, '^ Come unto me, all 
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest." To the unhappy of every name and age, 
it proclaims, '^ Ho every one thatthirsteth," let him 
^^ take the water of life freely." It watches over the 
germ of awakened thought and right feeling, and ; 
encourages every hesitating and discouraged effort 
. towards holiness and heaven. To the returning pro- 
digal, naked and starved, it speaks of his Father's 
house, where there is bread enough and to spare, 
and of the best robe to cover his shame. Over the 
broken-hearted, who has scarcely courage to say, 
^^God be merciful to me a sinner!" its language is, 
^^ Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee." 
Over the abandoned and incorrigible, it breathes 
sighs, and drops tears of compassion ; over the peni- 



ITS SPIRIT SUPERHUMAN. 77 

tent, it utters its songs of rejoicing. It wounds to 
heal ; it kills only to make alive ; it disturbs the vain 
hopes of the deceived only to drive them from their 
refuges of lies to the Refuge where are security and 
peace. When the wanderer is benighted, it sends 
out its light and truth, and leads him in a plain 
path : if he is surrounded by enemies, it sounds its 
note of alarm, and spreads around him its protecting 
shield ; if he slumber, it wakes him ; and if he stum- 
bles and falls, the Angel of its Covenant carries him 
in his arms, and the Shepherd of Israel folds him in 
his bosom. It tells the tempted of a '^ great High 
Priest, touched with the feeling of their infirmities ;" 
to the afiiicted it speaks of ^' an exceeding and eter- 
nal weight of glory," wrought out by ^' their light 
afiiictions, which are but for a moment;" to the dy- 
ing, it speaks of an "house not made with hands," 
Avhen the " earthly house of this tabernacle is dis- 
solved;" while, in view of an assembled universe 
and the last judgment, it reveals the sentence to all 
who listen to its counsels, " Come, ye blessed of my 
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from 
the foundation of the world !" 

And is such a spirit the spirit of imposture ? Is 
such a Book the work of man ? Has it not coun- 
sels for the wretched which the world does not 
know ; and when, for all this world can proffer, every- 
thing around them were a dreary waste? Is not 
such a spirit a novel spirit ; so novel as never to have 
been known until it was revealed from heaven — so 
novel, so unearthly, that the original model of it 



^8 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

finds no place in the imaginations of men, and only 
in the counsels of heavenly love ? 

3. In perfect accordance with this spirit is the 
spirit of those institutions which this Book estab- 
lishes. They are all institutions of unearthly kind- 
ness. Where they exist in their Scriptural purity, 
they express a purely benevolent design, and exert 
an influence that is purely benevolent. The mes- 
sage ushered by its ministry is ^^ peace on earth and 
good will to men;" — ^' peace, like the dew of Her- 
mon, and love, like the holy oil which consecrated 
God's high priest.'- The world could not live 
without its Sabbath ; yet benighted as it is, and 
wearied and wasted by its moral vassalage, the light 
and emancipation of such a day of rest would never 
have entered into its wisest inventions. Its ordi- 
nances are the token of Heaven's covenanted mercy, 
and the pledge of love that is unearthly; they 
breathe the spirit of love — the fervency and strength 
of love : the ardor of God's love to man — the re- 
flected love of man to God — the reciprocal love of 
man to man ! They arrest attention, and strike with 
awe as symbols of love. 

That visible community to which the Bible has 
given rise among men, all eating the same spiritual 
meat, and drinking the same spiritual drink ; all pro- 
fessing one faith, one calling, one hope; is no human 
device. The public and distinct association of all 
those who profess to be governed by the principles 
of the Bible, most certainly forms a peculiarity in 
human history. There are other associations among 



ITS SPIRIT SUPERHUMAN. 79 

men, bound together by common principles and pur- 
suing common objects: they are not unknown to 
false rehgions ; but there are none that profess to be 
governed by love to God and love to one another, 
as the essential basis of their union and fellowship. 
However separated by time and place, custom and 
usage, so far as they are true to their profession, they 
have all been made to ^^ drink into the same spirit." 
They have '^an unction from the Holy One," the 
fragrance of which is ^^ as the smell of a field which 
the Lord hath blessed," where, like flowers cherished 
by heaven's dews and sun, they immingle and in- 
crease their beauty ; and where 

"Lebanon, with all its trees, 
Yields not a comely sight as these.*' 

There is no stronger, and no sweeter bond, than that 
which binds minds and hearts that are thus governed 
by the principles and spirit of this holy Book. The 
contention and strife of wicked nations and wicked 
men, have no place here. This heavenly spirit 
would soften the savage sternness of earth, eradicate 
its barbarism and ferocity, and transform its tragic 
scenes of wretchedness and suffering, into scenes on 
which the eye of Infinite love might look down with 
gratified and complacent smiles. This is the great 
principle of all Christian association ; it is one which 
would render the life of man here below --as the 
days of heaven upon earth," when the triumphs of 
love shall be celebrated, 

" Loud as from numbers without number, sweet 
As from blest voices uttering joy." 



80 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

These institutions are all remarkable features of the 
Bible. The very existence and design of them indi- 
cate a spirit that is superhuman ; and, were there no 
other, would themselves alone be proof of the divine 
origin of Christianity. 

4. Still greater emphasis will be given to the pre- 
ceding considerations by the fact, that the spirit of 
kindness, expressed in the Bible, flows out toivards all 
classes of the human family. There are classes that 
are neglected and depressed by all false religions. 

Womvan, under the influence of every religion 
in the world, save that revealed in the Scriptures, 
instead of being the loved and attached companion 
of man — a helper, meet for his labors, trials, joys, 
and immortality — is his servant, and deemed fitting 
and worthy only to minister to his wants and pas- 
sions. Instead of being entitled to that place in 
his affections, that honorable position in society 
which belongs to her, she is the dishonored por- 
tion of the race. Instead of being its ornament 
and crown, and designed by her beauty, loveli- 
ness, weakness, and shrinking delicacy, to influence, 
charm, soften, purify, and elevate the stronger and 
coarser sex, she is excluded from this honorable 
and elevating intercourse, and made the corrupter of 
human society. In lands not a few, she forms no 
constituent part of the domestic circle ; she is even 
denied her immortality ; her birth is bewailed as a 
misfortune, and her death hailed with rejoicing ; 
and if she is allowed to survive her minority, it is to 
immolate herself on the funeral pile of her husband, 



ITS SPIRIT SUPERHUMAN. 81 

or become the universal scorn even of her own chil- 
dren. I need not dwell on the fact, that this is no 
part of the spirit of the Bible. 

It is a remarkable feature of the Bible also, that 
it has peculiar respect to little children and the ris- 
ing generation. Both under the Old and New Tes- 
taments, its great designs of mercy are carried into 
ejffect, by its effective solicitude and tenderness to- 
wards the young. It is out of the mouth of babes 
and sucklings, that its Author would perfect praise. 
Next to the garden and the cross, there is not a 
more affecting or characteristic symbol of Chris- 
tianity, than the scene where the Saviour took little 
children in his arms and blessed them. How dif- 
ferent is this from the brutal negligence, and horrid 
rites, and practised infanticide of paganism ! " Suf- 
fer the little children to come unto me, and forbid 
them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven!" 
Did the voice of earth ever utter a sentence like this ? 
and is it not a proof of Heaven's own tenderness ? 

We might expatiate largely also, on the benign 
influence of the Bible upon that class of men who by 
crime, or war, or cupidity, become the slaves of their 
fellow men. The slavery of the Bible, in its worst 
form, is a very different thing from the slavery of pa- 
gan and anti-Christian lands. It can scarcely deserve 
to be called slavery ; nor is there any doubt, that in 
the same measure in which the principles and spirit 
of the Bible are imbibed, the yoke of human bondage 
will melt away, and every form of human oppression 
cease. '^ There is no respect of persons with God." 

Bible not of Man. 4^# 



82 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

This Book is throughout the friend of the poor. 
In this particular, there is a marked difference be- 
tween the Bible and all other systems of religious 
faith and duty. Plato makes the strange remark, 
that ^^it is impossible to make God known to alV^ 
^^ All pure and spiritual religion," says Neander, 
^^was considered as the peculiar possession of a 
small number ; it seemed impossible to communi- 
cate this knowledge to the lower classes. ^^ False 
religions impoverish the poor by their severe exac- 
tions. One of the great causes of poverty and suf- 
fering in the mass of the community in pagan lands, 
is the intolerable burden of their religious systems ; 
while it is not less true that the poverty and dis- 
tress of the lower classes under our own observation, 
are to be attributed, in no small degree, to the vast 
amount of property wrung from them by a corrupted 
and false religion. Nor is this all. The poor, the 
sick, the aged, are they whose blood stains the altars 
of false religions, and who are ordinarily selected as 
the sacrifices to idol gods. How different is all this 
from the spirit of that Book which teaches us, that 
'^ the rich and the poor meet together, and the Lord 
is the Maker of them all ;" that he is ^^ a strength to 
the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress;'' 
that he ^^ vindicates the poor of the people, and saves 
the children of the needy;" that ^^to the poor the 
Gospel is preached," and that ^^God hath chosen the 
poor of this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of 
the kingdom which he hath promised." The spirit 
of the Bible is in this particular of high origin ; it 



ITS SPIRIT SUPERHUMAN. 83 

was born in heaven and trained to deeds of mercy. 
It has counsels for the throne — ^for the prison it has 
consolation. ^^ I was sick, and ye visited me ; I was 
in prison, and ye came unto me." It has admoni- 
tions for the rich — for the poor glad tidings. '* It is 
one of the prime and distinguishing features of the 
character of the Deity, as revealed to us in Scripture, 
that the poor man, just as well as the rich man, is 
the object of his watchfulness: that he bov/s his 
ear to the cry of the meanest outcast ; so that there 
is not a smile upon a poor man's cheek, and there is 
not a tear in a poor man's eye, which passes any more 
unheeded by our God, than if the individual were a 
monarch on his throne, and thousands crouched in 
vassalage before him."* The condition of the poor 
in lands that are Christian, compared with other 
lands, speaks volumes for the Bible. The ten thou- 
sand acts of private nriunificence, as well as more 
public bounty in the forms of legal enactment, and 
the various eleemosynary institutions unknown to 
the world where the Bible is unknown, are no doubt- 
ful proof of the benevolence of its spirit. This 
blessed Book has no characteristic more obvious than 
sympathy for the oppressed and suffering classes of 
human society. It is like a bright sun, when he 
breaks through the cloud and falls upon the lowly 
vale ; it is God's light, cheering those who ^^ dwell 
in darkness and unseen." 

5. Another consideration by which the unearthly 

* Melvill. 



S4 THE BIBLE NOT OF IMAN. 

spirit of the Bible is illustrated, is derived from the 
great end and motive which it reveals as the su- 
preme and governing principle of the Divine con- 
duct. This Book discloses what no human philos- 
ophy ever thought of, and no systems of paganism 
have ever revealed — the ultimate end of the Deity 
in the creation and government of this lower world. 
It instructs us that God '* made all things for him- 
self;'' that ^' for his pleasure they exist, and were cre- 
ated ;" that ^^ of him, and to him, and through him 
are all things, to whom be glory for ever." It in- 
structs us, that by all his works, he illustrates and 
manifests the inherent and unchanging perfection 
of his own glorious nature. 

And what are these perfections .'* '^ God is light ;" 
" God is love :" his infinite wisdom and goodness are 
those moral properties of his nature which he de- 
signs thus to unfold. There was no motive, no in- 
citement from without ; the irresistible impulse was 
all from within his own wise and benevolent mind. 
He could not but express and gratify his own wis- 
dom and goodness ; this was the consideration which 
moved him to create, to govern, to redeem. This, to 
some minds, may appear an abstract and metaphys- 
ical truth ; but it is a great and glorious truth, a 
most precious and lovely truth ; one Avhich the Bible 
only reveals, and one in which we discover the true 
spirit of the book itself. As a dogma merely, it has 
a cold and abstract form ; but it is inwoven and min- 
gled with the genial warmth of love. It is not aj 
frigid abstraction, but living, breathing kindness. 



ITS SPIRIT SUPERHUMAN. yS 

It is the theory of love, and a sure pledge for the 
actings of love. It is not a beautiful moonlight 
scene, but the sun of summer, filling all the regions 
of the earth, coming upon us with its balmy air, and 
enkindling within our bosoms deep-felt gratitude. 
What shall we say of the spirit of that Book which 
brings the blessed truth home to the business and 
bosoms of men, that all that God does is under 
the invariable impulse to what is wisest and best ; 
which speaks of love under the control of intelli- 
gence, and intelligence controlled by love — ^love 
that is all emotion and tenderness, all that is fond 
and paternal — that has not one chilling, or cheer- 
less aspect, and no counterpart in the inventions of 
men ? The infidel sees difficulties in the govern- 
ment of the Most High, and sees them everywhere — 
difficulties which, as a moral and sensitive being, 
fill him with perplexity and darkness. Events have 
taken place, are taking place now, and will here- 
after take place, that are evil ; but the Bible teaches 
us, that there is a benevolent design in the darkest 
dispensations ; and that they present the deep back- 
ground of that great moral landscape, which brings 
out the strongest outlines of the Divine wisdom and 
goodness. What is difficult to us, is easy to God ; 
what to us is doubtful, to him is ascertained ; what 
to our view is full of perplexity, we are assured is 
directed to what is best. The Bible is not silent 
upon such topics as these ; it sees these evils ; it 
weighs them, feels them, discloses them, and that it 
may provide a remedy for them. 



86 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

It is a strong mark of divine teaching, to be 
told, that everything that God does is under the 
impulse of goodness — goodness as extensive as cre- 
ation, as constant as time, as enduring as eternity. 
Such are the teachings, and such the spirit of the 
sacred volume. Such is the relief it affords to mill- 
ions of minds, otherwise shrouded in gloom. It 
pours light upon the darkest pages of this world's 
history, and makes the interminable future lumi- 
nous. Nor are there any such benevolent teachings, 
except from the God of love. 

6. Let us, as the crowning thought of the whole, 
dwell a few moments on the spirit of this Book as 
expressed in its own wondrous method of redeeming 
mercy. That it is above the invention of the human 
intellect, we have seen ; equally is the spirit which 
dictated it above the well-known spirit of man. The 
more just indeed are our conceptions of the good- 
ness which gave it birth, the deeper are our convic- 
tions that it is immeasurably above our reach. No 
man ever seriously addressed himself to the effort 
of making a due estimate of the love which origi- 
nated this mysterious arrangement, without the im- 
pression, the strong inward feeling, that it is infinitely 
beyond the reach of his moral, as well as his intel- 
lectual powers. It requires love to perceive love : 
we have not love enough in oiu- own bosoms, to 
perceive this amazing love of God. The true spirit 
of the Bible is not in its rightful and unbending au- 
thority merely, replete as this authority is with the 
goodness and majesty of its Divine Author ; nor is 



I 



ITS SPIRIT SUPERHUMAN. 87 

it merely in those rich and embodied truths, those 
moral considerations, drawn from so many sources, 
and which none but the heart of Infinite love 
could suggest : it is in the revelation it makes of the 
love of its Atoning, Redeeming Saviour. They are 
^^ thoughts that breathe, and words that burn," which 
make this disclosure ; but they are words of peace to 
the guilty ; counsels of peace, thoughts of love, 
overflowings of heavenly solicitude and compassion, 
which sought a channel at the greatest sacrifice, and 
one which '^ none of the princes of this world knew." 
It was to subdue to the spirit of the Bible, and 
wash their sins away, and adopt into the family of 
heaven those whose wickedness had made them 
outcasts, and who were fit only for the abodes of 
infamy and shame, that the God of the universe 
consecrated his Son — his only and equal Son, on the 
altar of Justice ; '^ gave him up," abandoned him 
to sorrows that rent the heavens with an exceeding 
great and bitter cry ; to agony with which the graves, 
the rocks, the sun, the whole material world sympa- 
thized. And all for man that is a worm ! 

" O more exceeding love, or law more just — 
Just law indeed, but more exceeding love !" 

" God SO loved the world, that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life !" 
Dwell on this thought, and tell me whence it came ? 
Does it fall on the ear as the voice of man ? Has 
not every heart, that is not bereft of the last vestige 



88 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

of filial affectiorij the irresistible consciousness that 
it is the voice of his '^ Father who is in heaven ?'' 
O, if it were for nothing else than the revelation 
the Bible makes of that ^^ mighty movement made 
in heaven" when men were lost, this alone were 
enough to rescue it from the imputation of being 
the device of a vile impostor ! There is an ampli- 
tude of goodness here, which is literally immeasur- 
able ; a self-denial of goodness, which never can be 
recompensed ; a purity of goodness, which nothing 
can impeach ; a constancy and Avatchfulness of 
goodness, that are never wearied, and that nevei 
slumber. Time does not weaken such love as this ; 
distance does not change it ; unkindness, ingratitude, 
and abuse do not exhaust it ; nor is it exhausted by 
poverty, disease, crime, and death. It never shuts 
up the bowels of its compassion. It has a strength 
that surmounts the greatest obstacles ; a height, and 
depth, and length, of which those who know most 
of it can only say that " it passeth knowledge." Was 
it ever known that an impostor put on such robes 
of love ; or was any creature ever thus clad in the 
brightest adornment of the Deity ? 

Such is the spirit of the Bible ; such is its love, 
its amazing, unsearchable love, in more respects 
than those of which the preceding induction of par- 
ticulars is but a very partial expression. Love and 
mercy, the infinite love and mercy of the Infinite 
One, constitute its great and glowing themes from 
beginning to end ; themes never lost sight of, never 



ITS SPIRIT SUPERHUMAN. 89 

obscured, never losing their ascendancy. Such a 
production was never the production of man : it is 
more than the human mind can conceive, that such 
a book should have its origin in this low earth. It 
is not the spirit of man, which this Book discloses; 
it is a spirit which belongs not to man's nature. 
Never has the universe seen, nor will it ever see so 
heavenly a spirit, save in these annals of heavenly 
mercy. No other book is imbued with such a spirit, 
because this alone is the Book of God. O, how un- 
like all other books is the sweet spirit of the Bible ! 

Let a man retire from the world with the Bible 
in his hand, and, even though the enemy of this 
wondrous Book, he must feel as though he were in 
another atmosphere than the atmosphere of earth. 
Nor can even such a man fail to contrast the heav- 
enly fragrance of its spirit, with the nauseous fumes 
that come up from his own agitated and effervescing 
bosom ; and if he is its friend, he feels as if he were 
fanned by the zephyrs of heaven, and encircled by 
its balmy breezes. Let us suppose an intelligent 
and well-instructed pagan, but lately emerged from 
the darkness of paganism, and brought to an ac- 
quaintance Avith the Bible, and to feel its power. 
It were difficult for us to conceive the impressions 
made upon such a mind, by the beauty and excel- 
lence of the spirit which this Book expresses. Con- 
trasted with the spirit of paganism, it would seem 
to him like the balmy air and flushing verdure of 
spring after the dreary chills of a long winter. His 
dreaming anticipations of his own Elysium, would 



90 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

be more than realized in that wondrous system of 
truth and love ; that tender regard for men, in all 
the various stages of their moral history ; that uni- 
form and benignant tendency of its high-born insti- 
tutions ; that impartial goodness to classes of men 
which paganism overlooks and despises ; that su- 
preme and governing end of all the Divine con- 
duct ; and that method of redeeming mercy, the 
design and object of which are to extricate men 
from darkness, by bringing them to the light of life ; 
to deliver them from bondage, by rescuing them 
from guilt ; to make them happy, by making them 
good. Such a man would almost involuntarily 
exclaim, This is truly a most wonderful book ; there 
is nothing like it in the counsels of earthly wisdom : 
it cannot be the work of an impostor ! 

And such are our own conclusions. There are 
associations of thought and feeling here, not only 
from which the dark and subtil mind of an impostor 
is widely and forever alienated, but which it is as 
irrational to trace to any other than a divine source, 
as it would be to attribute the Pilgrim's Progress to 
such a man as Thomas Paine. To a mind at all 
imbued with the spirit of the Bible, its divine ori- 
gin is a thing of instant conviction, as if seen in 
the light of its own evidence, rather than a thing 
of lengthened and laborious proof. God has so 
ordained our mental constitution, that if the mind 
be not, to a lamentable degree, disordered and per- 
verted by wickedness, we cannot but see that this 
lovely production is his own work. Like the 



ITS SPIRIT SUPERHUMAN. 91 

manna miraculously rained down in the Arabian 
desert, we need only inspect it in order to see that 
it is the ^' bread of heaven, which giveth life to the 
world." No more than a child can mistake the 
letter of love from the well-known hand of his 
earthly parent, can we mistake the celestial origin 
of these epistles of heavenly mercy. No more than 
a son can mistake his father's last will and testa- 
ment, can we mistake this last Will and Testament 
of Him ''who liveth and was dead, and is alive for 
evermore." Never could it have been written by any 
other hand. It is Godlike throughout, and breathes 
his lovely and blessed spirit. It has no origin, save 
in those eternal counsels of love which devised it ; no 
resemblance, save where its own superhuman spirit 
is inscribed ; no fulfilment, save in that heaven to 
which it tends. It presents a distinct exhibition of 
God himself. It is the mighty conception of his love. 
It stands alone in the world. It is God's Bible. 

" Hast thou ever heard 



Of such a book ? The author, God himself; 

The subject, God and man, salvation, life 

And death — eternal life, eternal death — 

Dread words ! whose meaning has no end, no bounds. 

Most wondrous book ! bright candle of the Lord ' 

Star of eternity ! the only star 

By which the bark of man could navigate 

The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss 

Securely ! only star which rose on time. 

And on its dark and troubled billows, stole, 

As generation, drifting swiflly by. 

Succeeded generation, thence a ray 

Of heaven's own light, and to the hills of God, 



92 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

Th' eternal hills, pointed the sinner's eye. 
This book, this holy book, in every line 
Marked with the seal of high divinity, 
On every leaf bedewed with drops of love 
Divine, and with th' eternal heraldry 
And signature of God Almighty stamped 
From first to last — this ray of sacred light, 
This lamp from off the everlasting throne, 
Mercy took down, and in the night of time 
Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow. 
And evermore beseeching men, v/ith tears 
And earnest sighs, to hear, believe, and live. 
And many to her voice gave ear and read. 
Believed, obeyed : and now, as the Amen, 
True, faithful Witness swore, with snowy robes 
And branching palms surround the fount of life. 
And drink the streams of immortality. 
Forever happy, and forever young." 

If the intelligence of this Book should fail to 
convince the reader, let its love persuade him. It is 
a kind volumcj fitted to disarm prejudice, and sub- 
due hostility. There are dark jealousies and most 
unworthy suspicions of it in the world. Men do 
injustice to it, because guilt is always suspicious; 
nor do their suspicions always go at their bidding. 
You love the man who throws around him an 
atmosphere of kindness. The Bible itself is such 
an atmosphere, without any mixture of impurity. 
It lives only to bless the world. And when its 
work of touching tenderness, diffusive, attractive 
blessedness is accomplished, it will return to Him 
who gave it, to impart new blessings, and shed new 
lustre on the heaven whence it came. 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. 93 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MORAL RECTITUDE OF THE BIBLE. 

In adverting to the spirit of the Scriptures, 1 
have not designed to call the reader's attention so 
much to their moral rectitude, as to their unearthly 
kindness. Benevolence is good will ; moral recti- 
tude is conformity to what is right. The spirit of 
the Bible consults the happiness of men ; its moral 
rectitude, their character. Moral rectitude, though 
productive of happiness, is a distinct thing from hap- 
piness ; just as wickedness, though productive of 
misery, is a distinct thing from misery. The one 
is the effect ; the other, the cause. Moral recti- 
tude is perceived by conscience ; happiness, by con- 
sciousness. Moral rectitude is the proper subject of 
command, and must always be required ; happiness 
may not be. Moral rectitude has moral qualities ; 
happiness may not have. The moral rectitude of 
the Scriptures, therefore, in distinction from their 
superhuman kindness, furnishes a fair, and as I shall 
endeavor to show, a good ground of argument, that 
they are neither the work of an impostor, nor of any 
human device. 

It is inseparable from all just conceptions of God, 
that it is impossible for him to do wrong. He is the 



94 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

source of all moral rectitude in the universe, and 
everywhere its supporter and patron. He is holy, 
and his holiness is infinite. He is the Holy One, 
and the only one who, by excellence, can challenge 
to himself the name of Holy. Holiness is an essen- 
tial perfection of his nature ; it is full and perfect^ 
without blemish, and without diminution or change. 
A book of which he is the Author must be a holy 
book, and must, necessarily, express his irreconcil- 
able aversion to all that is wrong. 

We cannot say this of man, nor of any book of 
which he is the author. We know what the char- 
acter of man is. It is a humiliating confession, that 
we cannot give human nature credit for any great 
degree of moral virtue. There are not only great 
and obvious defections from moral integrity in every 
individual of our race, without exception ; but wick- 
edness prevails to a degree sufficient to convince 
us, that the great principles of moral order in this 
world are all subverted. Wickedness exists in every 
form : wickedness in principle, and wickedness in 
practice ; wickedness in heart and life ; Avickedness 
in every variety and measure. Degraded and degrad- 
ing wickedness, and wickedness that is polished and 
honored ; wickedness in the solitude of the closet, 
and in the retirements of the domestic relations ; 
wickedness in nations and in the world ; wickedness 
in human laws and governments; institutions and 
customs that are wicked ; a wicked press, and a 
wicked literature ; and Avithal, religions in abun- 
dance that are wicked, form the leading and promi- 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. 95 

nent features in the history of our race. There are 
strong propensities in men to that which is evil. 
The paths of Hcensed and ungoverned. wickedness 
are pleasant to them ; while the paths of virtue, 
truthj purity, honesty and honor, are uninviting to 
their depraved taste, and rugged and difficult. 

These views of the human character have re- 
ceived the sanction of paganism itself, and are abun- 
dantly verified by the writings of its poets, philoso- 
phers, and historians. Not a few among infidels 
themselves do not dispute them. There is no doubt 
in this matter. There is but this one view that can 
be given of the character of man. Were the ques- 
tion asked, What are those persons most familiar 
with, and Avhat reminiscences most haunt their im- 
aginations, who are most versed in the history of 
our world ? The one answer must be, that they, 
of all men, know most of human wickedness. 
Save a few bright spots, like the oases in the desert, 
the pilgrimage of the historian is through regions 
defiled by crime, polluted by idolatry and blood, 
agitated by ambition and revenge, desolated by cru- 
elty and despotism, bearing the marks of violence 
and wrong, and everywhere presenting scenes of 
misery and horror, which furnish" overwhelming 
proof of deep-seated wickedness in the heart of man, 
and in all the elements of his social organization. 

Now the simple question we propose for consid- 
eration is. Whether such a book as the Bible was 
the production of the human mind ; and whether it 
is a possible thing that a being, as degraded and 



96 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

morally depraved as we know man to be, unless 
inspired by the God of spotless rectitude, could have 
been its author ? 

In determining this question, it is necessary that 
we inspect the moral rectitude of the Book itself. 
Men may inspect detached portions of it, and please 
themselves with some things, which, at first view, 
have the semblance of conniving at what is wrong. 
But let them read it ; let them read the whole of it ; 
let them carry along in their minds the character of 
the persons to which the different portions of it were 
addressed ; the age of the world, and the circum- 
stances under which the different parts of it were 
written, and the particular objects which even those 
portions of it have in view, which to an infidel 
mind appear the most exceptionable ; and they may 
be rationally convinced that, instead of originating in 
the bosom of an impostor, it owes its origin to men 
who wrote ^^as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost." Let them scrutinize it with as much 
severity as they please ; only let their scrutiny be 
well informed, wisely directed, and with a fair and 
ingenuous mind, and we have no fears for the issue. 
There are portions of it on which ignorance and folly 
have put constructions that are forced and unnatural, 
and which impure minds have viewed in shadows 
reflected from their own impurity. Montesquieu 
said of Voltaire, Lorsque Voltaire lit un livre^ il le 
fmt^ puis il ecrit contre ce quHl a fait : '^ When 
Voltaire reads a book, he makes it what he pleases, 
and then writes against what he has made." It is 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. 97 

no difficult matter to besmear and blot its pages, and 
then impute the foul stains that men of corrupt minds 
have cast upon it, to its stainless Author. But if we 
honestly look at it as it is, we shall find that, like 
its Author, it is without blemish and without spot. 

1. Among the characteristics of the Bible whicli 
are somewhat remarkable expressions of moral recti- 
tude, the first that we notice is, the truth and just-- 
ness of its moral distinctions. Pagan lands have 
never known in what moral rectitude consists, nor 
have pagan writers ever described it. Nothing can 
be found in their works to induce the belief that any 
true knowledge of it has ever sprung up as an indi- 
genous plant upon the soil of unenlightened reason, 
or natural conscience. 

The peripatetic philosophy, or the philosophy of 
Aristotle, described moral rectitude as consisting in 
the mean betv)een two extremes ; a definition, than 
vvrhich nothing is more undefinabie. The stoical 
system, or the system of Zeno, describes it as living 
according to nature : alas, for the rectitude that con- 
sists in such a life ! The system of Epicurus, in its 
best estate, described it as living as free as possible 
from the evils incident to life, and in the enjoy- 
ment of as large a measure as possible of its happi- 
ness ; while in its subsequent corruptions, it is a 
system of mere animal pleasure and unrestrained 
sensuality. Human reason, untaught of God, has 
never been able to discover, to any such extent as is 
available for practical purposes, the difierence be- 
tween what is right and what is wrong. There is 

Bible not gf Man. 5 



98 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

no doubt thatj to some extent, the natural universe 
recognizes this distinction, while no well-informed 
person will deny that there are both graces and sins, 
virtues and vices, which the language of paganism 
has not words to express. 

The history of the world does not furnish ex- 
amples of more manly thought, nor of greater saga- 
city and shrewdness, nor more wonderful powers of 
discrimination, than are found in the writings of pa- 
gan philosophers ; yet on moral subjects their notions/j 
were not only vague and obscure, but in many in- 
stances absolutely puerile and foolish. They spoke, j 
of conduct as sacred, of which the Bible speaks as 
infamous; they treated as religious and honorable, 
what the Bible treats as debasing and flagitious. To , 
such an extent, and so boldly, did they ^^ put dark-r 
ness for light, and light for darkness, good for evil, 
and evil for good," that their very religion required 
them to be immoral. 

All their religious teachers did not indeed incul- 
cate the same doctrines ; what one condemned as a 
vice, another, equally profound, inculcated as a virtue. 
Nor were their teachings consistent and uniform ; . 
the same writers, and the same legislation that some- 
times discountenanced wickedness, at others embol- 
dened the perpetration of it. The reason why there 
are no accurate delineations of moral rectitude in 
heathen writers is, they had no divine teaching, and 
therefore no discernment of it. Right and wrong 
with them were arbitrary distinctions, and depend- 
ed for the most part upon custom, upon the au- 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. 99 

thority of human laws, and upon the opinions of 
men. This is the ground on which Hobbes and 
other infidel writers rest all their moral distinctions. 
The history of pagan philosophy is interesting, be- 
cause it is mournfully instructive as a history of the 
errors of the human mind, and as a practical proof of 
that excessive degradation to which the most refined 
and cultivated intellect is reduced, when destitute of 
Divine guidance. If we except those writings which 
derive their instructions from the Bible, there is 
but this one book that lays the foundation of moral 
obligation in the nature of the Deity, and in the 
nature and relations which men sustain towards 
him and one another, as he has revealed them. In 
the sparklings of pagan poetry, there are occasional 
scintillations of moral sentiment that are just and 
exalted ; and so there are in the more sober discus- 
sions of such a writer as the great heathen moralist, 
Seneca. But they are too varying and contradictory ; 
they affirm and deny almost in the same paragraph ; 
while the most unexceptionable, both of their poets 
and philosophers, are the teachers of flagrant wick- 
edness. It is not so with the Bible. At a great re- 
move from the ethics of the whole pagan and infidel 
world, the rectitude it describes is no scintillation of 
poetry, nor is it any sudden outbreaking of con- 
science ; it is not brought out occasionally, and for 
effect, but is inwoven with all its revelations, and 
is the uniform characteristic of the book itself. In- 
stead of being influenced by the opinions of men, 
and controlled by their example, customs, and laws, 



100 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

its aim is to influence and control men themselves. 
Instead of inculcating a rectitude that is based on 
the principles of expediency, and urging the claims 
of godliness as a profitable speculation, and sacrific- 
ing the interests of moral rectitude to any other in- 
terests, it uniformly pursues the opposite course ; and 
in every instance where other interests come in col- 
lision with the claims of moral rectitude, the latter ^ 
hold absolute supremacy. 

This were a somewhat remarkable fact in a work 
to be traced no higher than the artifice of an impos- 
tor. Whence is it, that in an age of the world 
when human learning was so ignorant, human phi- 
losophy so unwise, and the virtue and teachings of 
its sages so erring, a collection of impostors should 
have this strange preeminence ? Whence is it, that 
a system of morals, devised by such men, should 
strike its roots so deep into the great principles of 
God's government, and the moral constitution of ; 
man? Whence is it, that all the results of human 
philosophy are so infinitely surpassed by the moral 
principles of a book, which has its origin in deception^ 
and falsehood? '^Hath not God made foolish the 
wisdom of this world ?" Does not this revelation, by 
the mere truth and justness of its moral distinctions, 
show that it is God's work, and not the work of man ? 

2. It is the great peculiarity of the Bible also, 
that it furnishes the only perfect standard of moral 
rectitude. Human reason does not know enough 
to furnish such a standard ; nor is it sufficiently im- 
partial to do so, if it were able. Conscience is not 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. 101 

sufficiently enlightened to furnish such a standard ; 
nor, in fallen man, is she sufficiently honest to do 
so, were she enlightened. One Being in the uni- 
verse there is, and only one, who is capable of decid- 
ing what in all instances of human conduct is right 
in itself j and of revealing the unerring rule of right 
to the creatures he has made. 

There is a law in the Scriptures, called the Mo- 
ral Law, and comprised in ten precepts, there affirmed 
to have been written by the finger of God. It is a 
laAv which uniformly and always commands what is 
right, and prohibits what is wrong. Without stop- 
ping to expound it, it is enough to say, that it is so 
comprehensive as to be applicable to every creature 
in the universe, and to every instance of his moral 
conduct. Just as it is proof of the Divine wisdom, 
to secure and control ten thousand events in the 
natural world by one simple law of nature ; so it is 
one of the proofs of his wisdom, to govern every 
creature in the universe by this one, simple law of 
rectitude. This law is a perfectly decisive standard, 
and one that is perfectly adapted to the workings 
of natural conscience. The conscience of every man 
that is enlightened by it, endorses it as truly as the 
congregation of Israel did, when, at the rehearsal 
of every precept and penalty, ^^ all the people said, 
Amen." 

There are several things in relation to this great 
rule of moral conduct, that are worthy of a moment's 
thought. 

It is a consideration not to be overlooked, that it 



102 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

extends itself to the hearty and does not stop short 
of the inward principles and motives of human con- 
duct. It does not sever the outer from the inner 
man ; but regards his principles and motives as the 
germ of which his outward conduct is the develope- 
ment. It reaches the fountain, and gains nothing, 
and cares for nothing, until it carries the heart. It 
identiiies the love of God with keeping his com- 
mandments, and keeping his commandments with 
the love of God. It condemns the boasted rectitude 
of principle which is without an outward and visible 
morality, as well as a Pharisaic morality that is des- 
titute of right principle. 

Another fact in relation to it is, its wonderful 
comprehensiveness. It comprises everything that 
men think, or say, or do, as well as everything they 
omit which they ought to perform. In its induc- 
tions of particulars, the thought of evil, and the 
murderous act, the two extremes of human wicked- 
ness, are specified as including the entire range of 
human conduct. 

Another fact in relation to it is, that it is appli- 
cable to all men alike, regards all their conduct, and 
is to be carried everywhere. It is not for the old 
only, but for the young ; it is not for the poor only, 
but for the rich ; it is not for the monastery and 
the cloister, the closet and the family merely ; nor is 
it confined to the sanctuary and the Sabbath ; but it 
regards all the relations of society as the spheres of 
its influence. It consecrates the reciprocal depend- 
encies, obligations, and intercourse between man and 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. 103 

man, as well as between man and his Maker ; and 
looks upon this whole earth, with all the variety of 
its aspects and employments, as a temple, every part 
of which ought to be vocal with God's praise and 
devoted to his glory. 

Another fact is, that it is unbending in its claims, 
and requires a rectitude that is sinless. Its course 
is a straight one, and without the least deviation 
from a right line. No departure from it is allowed, 
under any possible pretence or any imaginable cir- 
cumstances. It never modifies its high claims in 
accommodation to the character and condition of 
men, the maxims of the world, the laws and usages 
of society, or the force of temptation. Nothing in 
the universe relaxes the obligation, or countervails 
the life and spirit of it ; but it is of perpetual force 
and obligation in all worlds, and throughout eternity. 

Nor does it stand unenforced with appropriate 
and equitable penalties. It does not merely de- 
scribe the rectitude it enjoins; nor does it simply 
coufisel men to obedience : it binds them at their 
peril, and on the most fearful penalties. Its lan- 
guage is in the highest degree authoritative. It 
is not at their option ; they have no choice in the 
matter ; the only alternative is obedience, or death, 
death eternal, and without reprieve. Its punitive 
power is not passion, but principle ; it is not a vacil- 
lating policy, but an established law of the Divine 
kingdom. It is one upon which the great moral 
Governor of the universe conducts his government 
towards every part of it, and with impartial equity ; 



104 '•t'HE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

one which he will emphatically act out, when he 
bids the incorrigible depart into everlasting fire. The 
Scriptures magnify this unbending rectitude of the 
Divine government ; they represent it as one of the 
excellencies of the Divine character, that he ^' is 
angry with the wicked every day ;" that he '^ hateth 
all the workers of iniquity ;" and that his punitive 
justice is as truly the befitting theme of praise on 
the lips of the unfallen and of the redeemed, as his 
larger and preeminent grace. 

Infidels have reviled the Bible, for this perfect 
and unbending standard of moral rectitude which it 
reveals. Here we are fairly at issue with them : 
what they affirm to be evidence of its imperfection, 
we affirm to be evidence of its perfection ; what they 
affirm could not have originated with a Being of per- 
fect benevolence, we affirm could never have origi- 
nated with man, whose benevolence and rectitude are 
so imperfect. We are content to make the appeal to 
every honest mind, whether such a standard of recti- 
tude, enforced by such penalties, is of human origin, 
or Divine ? 

The conclu3ion is rational and just. Such moral 
rectitude never originated in this imrighteous world. 
Such precepts and sanctions of righteousness are not 
the device of an impostor. From what we know 
of the character of man, can we suppose him to be 
such a lover and vindicator of moral rectitude, as to 
have guarded it by such a code ? 

Let the complaints of this wicked world against 
this eternal rule of right, and these eternal sanctions 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. 105 

of it, be an answer to these inquiries. Let the 
reproach, and reviUng, and bitter and malignant sar- 
casm of infidelity, so profusely bestowed on those 
portions of the Bible which most insist on claims 
like these, be our answer to them; and let them 
teach us, that the moral rectitude of this book is as 
far above the conceptions and device of men, as the 
thoughts of God are above the thoughts of man, and 
the ways of God above man's ways. 

3. Another expression of the moral rectitude of 
the Bible is found in the solicitude it expresses^ and 
the means it adopts for the promotion of m^oral recti- 
tude among men. The moral distinctions, the stand- 
ard of rectitude, and the sanctions by which its great 
rule of right is supported and enforced, are doubtless 
expressions of this solicitude, and themselves to be 
numbered among these selected means. But these 
are not the whole of them. 

Men have strayed very far from rectitude, and 
are perpetually, and on all sides, exposed to greatei 
and endless aberrations. They need to be in- 
structed in the path by which they may retrace theij 
steps. Their apostate character, the obtuseness of 
their consciences, and great moral blindness, call for 
some adequate means of moral transformation ; some 
animating stimulus to what is right ; some protec- 
tion from the storm of passions that assault the soul ; 
some secure guardianship against the seductions of a 
corrupting world ; some interposition of a power that 
is effective to the production of a more sound and 
better mind : some supporting hand to keep them 

Bible not of Man. ■ g# 



106 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

from falling ; some sacred influences that shall fit 
them to behold the face of God in peace, and to live 
and reign with him forever. 

If we reject the Bible, where are these varied 
influences to be found ? Infidels ought to feel them- 
selves under obligations to tell us where. They 
would fain take away the rectitude which the Bible 
imparts ; but they leave us nothing, absolutely no- 
thing, in its place. Natural science does not reclaim 
men from wickedness ; if it did, why were the most 
scientific and literary nations of ancient times the 
most wicked ? Human laws cannot reclaim them ; 
for it is an acknowledged fact, that in the best forms 
of civil government the world has seen, there is 
nothing to effect this moral renovation. 

I need scarcely say, that we must despair of pro- 
ducing anything like an exemplary moral rectitude 
in the world, if we abandon those principles and 
means of reform, which are found alone in the Bible. 
If we except those human writings which draw their 
instructions from this source, there is but this one 
book that is at all fitted to accomplish, or that seri- 
ously aims at accomplishing this great work. It is 
not easy for us to estimate the difficulty of accom- 
plishing it, or even the difficulty of making a hope- 
ful commencement. If you advert to the early 
instructions given to men after the first apostacy had 
its terrific sweep over the nations, you cannot but 
observe the concern, the caution, and the great con- 
descension which the Bible expresses, merely to 
imbue the minds of the nation, to whom its first 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. 107 

revelations were given, with some just conceptions 
of moral rectitude itself. By all that was fearful in 
the moral, and all that was exact in the ceremonial 
law, and by all that was peculiar in their own sepa- 
ration from the surrounding and idolatrous nations, 
lessons were taught them which all the volumes of 
pagan philosophy could not inculcate. It was only 
thus progressively that their minds could be opened 
to moral distinctions, and their consciences awakened 
to the consideration of what God himself approves 
and will accept, and what he disapproves and will 
punish. This is one great point to be secured in 
the minds of fallen men, and a most important be- 
ginning in the work of moral culture. 

In prosecuting this hallowed design, the next 
step is, to furnish some clear and distinct exemplifi- 
cation of moral rectitude. 

This the Scriptures do, especially in the delinea- 
tions they make of the holy character of God. They 
could accomplish nothing without this ; for men had 
lost the knowledge of God. Not one thought of his 
immutable excellence, or of the unblotted rectitude 
of his nature, entered into their religious systems. 
Their subordinate deities were examples of shame- 
less vice ; while their notions of the supreme Deity 
betray the profoundest ignorance, and the most con- 
temptuous disrespect. It is a remarkable fact in the 
history of men, that the conceptions they form of 
moral rectitude depend upon their conceptions of the 
Divine character. They are uniformly like the gods 
they worship. The devout worshipper of the true 



108 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

God resembles his Father who is in heaven. The 
devotee of false gods resembles the gods he worships, 
gradually acquires the character of the object with 
which he has religious intercourse, and receives the 
stamp and seal of it upon his own mind. And this 
is in perfect accordance with the laAvs of our intellec- 
tual and moral constitution. The Scriptures, speak- 
ing of the idols of the heathen, teach us that '^ they 
who make them are like them, and so is every one 
that putteth his trust in them." The conception 
of perfect moral rectitude is nowhere found to exist 
in the human mind, save where there are just con- 
ceptions of the Deity. The holiness of God binds 
men to be holy : it is written, ^^ Be ye holy, for I am 
holy:' 

God himself is represented in the Scriptures as a 
holy God : his purposes are holy ; his government is 
holy ; his word is holy ; his day is holy. Him they 
make the pattern and the patron, the shield, and the 
exceeding great reward of holiness in men, while 
they everywhere teach us, that in becoming holy, 
men become his people, and God himself becomes 
their God. All the instructions of the Bible are 
designed as means of grace, and helps to godliness. 
Its choicest privileges exert the most hallowed influ- 
ence. Its ordinances, its sanctuary, its ministry, its 
fellowship, were all instituted for the purpose of 
training up '* a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works ;" nor are the mere literalities and mechanism 
of their outward observance there regarded as of any 
avail, or otherwise than mockery. If we prize its 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. 109 

promiseSj they are revealed that ^^ we might be par- 
takers of the Divine nature." If we vahie its mercy- 
seat, ^^ there," says the God of all grace, ^^will 1 
meet thee, and I will commune -with thee, of all 
things which / will give thee in coiiiTnandTnent.''^ 
If we value fellowship with God, we are reminded 
that if we '^ regard iniquity in our heart, the Lord 
will not hear us." The entire worship which the 
Bible requires is ^^ in the beauties of holiness." This 
spirit of heaven, transferred to earth, as the ^^ dew of 
youth from the womb of the morning," and consti- 
tuting the highest adornment of his followers, is the 
promised reward of its great subject and Redeemer. 
^^ Fruit unto holiness" is its end and its heaven. 

Again, I ask. Is there no difficulty in coming to 
the conclusion that this Book is of human origin ? 
Can it be the production of a mind whose great char- 
acteristic is, that it hates righteousness ? 

4. There is still another expression of moral rec- 
titude, which strongly marks the revelations made in 
the Scriptures. I mean, the protection they extend 
to the claims and interests of moral rectitude in the 
dispensations of pardoning m^ercy. The expiatory 
death of Christ, as a satisfaction to Divine justice, in 
the behalf of repentant and reformed transgressors, 
must ever be regarded as the strongest proof of moral 
rectitude in the instructions of the Scriptures them- 
selves. Can any lesson be more instructive to the 
world, or to the universe, than that great lesson 
taught from Calvary, where the Eternal Son of God 
himself died on the cross to make an effective atone- 



110 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

merit for the sins of men, for the purpose of vindi- 
cating the stern claims of righteousness? Rather 
than sacrifice, or trifle with eternal rectitude, or 
connive at wrong, the sword of justice was commis- 
sioned to awake against the '' Fellow" of the Lord 
of hosts, and pierce his righteous soul, who ^^ thought 
it not robbery to be equal with God." Let the infi- 
del scofi* no more, nor indulge his learned curiosity 
in picking at this mountain of God's holiness. He 
will not find in it the alloy he hopes to find : ia this 
mass of pure gold there are not even those grains of 
sand he is seeking after. Rectitude and mercy have 
here no conflicting interests ; because the claims of 
rectitude are propitiated by an adequate and honora- 
ble atonement. It is the language of mercy which 
is here uttered, but only as it is warranted, echoed 
by justice. The moral rectitude that is outraged by 
the sin of man, is vindicated by the death of Christ. 
The redemption by Christ stands forever side by 
side with the orily revealed standard and sanctions 
of moral rectitude ; and while it pardons those whom 
the law condemns, it does so without impugning 
either the veracity or righteousness of the Lawgiver. 
It does more than this. Its very love and mercy 
are the great and only effectual means of restoring 
apostate men to the moral rectitude from which they 
have fallen. If the true Christian enters upon a 
course of obedience, freed from the embarrassments 
of a legal condemnation, and no longer struggling 
under the thraldom of the curse ; it is that he may 
run in the way of God's commandments with an 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. HI 

enlarged heart, and be cheered by the light of his 
countenance in doing his will. The salvation the 
Bible speaks of is a salvation fro7n sin, and restores 
not less to the Divine resemblance than the Divine 
favor. This is the most important, as it is the most 
prominent feature of the Christian economy; it 
covers indeed the whole ground of a supernatural 
revelation, and employs all the pens that have given 
it to the world, from Moses to John. Its enemies 
have severely scrutinized its moral influence ; and 
not a few of them have been constrained to acknowl- 
edge, that it reveals the only system of truth, and 
the only motives by which men become holy. 

It is no unusual thing for infidels themselves, in 
many instances, to do homage to the moral rectitude 
of the Bible. '' We always recur," says Melvill, 
^^ with great delight to the testimony of a Deist, who, 
after publicly laboring to disprove Christianity, and 
to bring Scripture into contempt as a forgery, was 
found instructing his own child from the pages of 
the New Testament. When taxed with the flagrant 
inconsistency, his only reply was, that nowhere was 
there to be found such morality as in the Bible ! 
We thank the Deist for the confession. Whatever 
our scorn of a man who could be guilty of so foul 
a dishonesty, seeking to sweep from the earth a 
volume to which all the while himself has recurred 
for the principles of education, we thank him for his 
testimony, that the morality of the Scriptures is a 
morality not elsewhere to be found ; so that if there 
were no Bible, there would be comparatively no 



112 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

source of instruction in duties and' virtues, whose 
neglect and decline would dislocate the happiness 
of human society. The Deist was right. Deny oi 
disprove the divine origin of the Scriptures, and 
nevertheless, you must keep the volume as a kind 
of text-book of morality." Lord Herbert himself 
acknowledges, ^^ that in this respect, Christianity is 
the best religion ;" nor, strange as the inconsistency 
may be, does he hesitate to say, that ^^ the great 
design of all its doctrines, and even of the rites and 
ceremonies there enjoined, is to establish those great 
principles in which true religion properly consists." 
No man ever rejected the Bible without exhibiting 
the demoralizing influence of his unbelief. I care 
not who the person is that makes this disastrous 
experiment ; but let him deny the truth, obligations, 
and hopes there revealed, and lie will find, to his 
cost, that his sinful propensities gain augmented 
power, and that in every instance he becomes a 
worse, instead of a better man. Without the Bible, 
men are atheists or idolaters, and always wicked 
men ; with it, if they are not virtuous and good 
men, it is from the power of wickedness, which is 
prcfof against the best means of reform. It is be- 
cause the safest and surest directory, the most cheer- 
ing encouragement, the plainest and most weighty 
obligations and sanctions, and the best fitted and 
most urgent motives to rectitude that are known in 
the universe, cannot control them. 

Such is the moral rectitude of the Bible. Let 



I 



1 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. 113 

US, m a few words, close up the argument for its 
divine origin from this single consideration. Our 
argument is simply this. In the language of Lord 
Bacon, '^ Truth is in order to goodness." Good- 
ness never was, never can be the genuine fruit of 
error. There is no absurdity more monstrous, than 
that truth and moral rectitude are at war with one 
another. No system of falsehood is thus distin- 
guished for its love of rectitude, and its uniformly 
hallowed influence. If this Bible be indeed the 
production of uninspired man, it is not in keeping 
with his well-known character, or his well-known 
religious inventions. If it be the production of un- 
inspired man, it Avere a phenomenon, a miracle, more 
difficult to be accredited than the inspiration which 
is the scoff of the unbeliever. Nothing is more dis- 
tant from human thought, than habitual familiarity 
with holy things and a holy God. Corrupted man 
never devised a book so pure and holy ; proud man, 
a book so humbling ; selfish and worldly man, a 
book so self-denying and spiritual : man, depraved, 
wicked man, a book so full of rebuke for his wick- 
edness, that it stings with unsparing and immeas- 
urable severity all his vices, has no truce with sin, 
and actually wages against it a war of extermination. 
Was it ever 

" heard in tale, or^ong, 

From old, or modern bard, in hall or bower," 

that such a revelation is the work of man ? There 



114 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

3S absurdity in such an hypothesis which evinces 
this holy Book to be its own witness. ^' Every 
kingdom divided against itself, is brought to desola- 
tion; and every city or house divided against itself, 
shall not stand." If the Bible be the work of an 
impostor, it is a most unhappy 'effort for his own 
cause. The arch-deceiver must have taken leave 
of his usual sagacity, in not restraining the pen that 
gave it to the world. If it be the devil's work, it is 
a complete failure. ^^If Satan cast out Satan, he is 
divided against himself: how shall then his kingdom 
stand?" Men are ^^wise to do evil;" — too wise to 
have erected a standard that should be the rallying 
point of every virtuous thought and affection, and 
give currency to a system that shall be absolute 
ruin to themselves. 

Never could the depraved intelligence and de- 
praved heart of man have inculcated such lessons. 
Nothing is farther from man's invention than such a 
theory, such a code, such a system of obligations, 
and such delineations of excellence — excellence, at 
once so lofty and so untarnished, that, like this Book 
of gems, it is difficult to say whether it attracts most 
by the loveliness of its spirit, or its unvarying, trans- 
parent rectitude. 

I know of but one answer to this argument that 
is even plausible. It may be said, that all men are 
not equally bad ; that we have given too sombre a 
shading to the character of the race ; and that there 
have been all along through the tracts of time, noble 
and exalted specimens of humanity ; men of truth 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. 115 

and probity, benevolent men, who desired above all 
things the moral elevation of their fellows ; and that 
it is no impossible thing for such men to have been 
the authors of the Sacred Writings. Our conclu- 
sive answer to this objection is threefold. In the 
first place, no such men have ever claimed to be the 
authors of this remarkable volume ; and if it be the 
work of such men, is there any possible motive for 
them to have left it anonymous? On the other 
hand, is there not every motive in the excellence of 
the book itself, for them to have avowed themselves 
its authors? In the next place, such men never 
would have been impostors^ claiming the unerring 
guidance of inspiration. In the third place, we fall 
back upon the assertion, that the thing itself is 
impossible. We know there are exceptions to the 
unmixed sinfulness of our race, in lands where the 
Scriptures have exerted their influence upon the 
human character ; and that in other lands all are not 
equally bad ; that there have been here and there 
rare lights amid the moral darkness of the pagan 
world ; and that men like Socrates, and Plato, and 
Seneca, Plutarch and Marcus Aurelius, aimed to act 
the part of reformers. Men have invented systems 
of religion ; they have enjoyed the unembarrassed 
opportunity of exerting their inventive powers on 
religious themes ; they have brought to their inven- 
tions, genius and learning, logic and eloquence. 
And the results are before the world. The works 
of the best heathen philosophers speak for them- 
selves, bear the moral image of their authors, and 



116 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

carry with them their own evidence of a human 
origin. All human systems of religion are wicked 
systems, because their authors were wicked men — 
systems of immorality and abomination, cherishing 
and calling into action the most depraved passions 
of the human heart, and degrading their votaries to 
the level of brutes. The best of them, like those 
of Confucius and Mahomed, are but memorials of 
great minds made little by falsehood, and degraded 
by sin ; of splendid and original talents actually de- 
formed by moral depravity — ^proofs of imaginative 
genius, and affecting indications that ^^ the light that 
was in them was darkness." When infidels tell us] 
of systems of faith and codes of morality that are of ; 
human origin, they speak intelligibly; nor would ^ 
we depreciate these marvellous discoveries. We 
look at them just as they are : and what are they ? 
It is difficult for human ingenuity and human wick- 
edness combined, to render them worse than they 
are. Nor have they been improved, from the days 
of ancient Assyria to the present hour. They may 
have originated splendid temples, but their divinities 
are mean and contemptible ; their offerings may 
have been costly, while the most costly are the 
most degrading and ruinous ; and their worshippers, 
like their divinities and rites, dishonorable and 
dishonored — vile in their affections, filled with all 
unrighteousness, and to every good work repro- 
bate. Aside from those human compositions of 
which the Scriptures are the basis, there is not a 
volume in all the rich and accumulated libraries of 



ITS MORAL RECTITUDE. ] 17 

earthj which diffuses the least fragrance of a celes- 
tial atmosphere, much less that ^^ savors the things 
that be of God," and like the Bible, glows with the 
splendors of his holiness. 

It need not surprise us that men like those who 
have written against this Book of God, should not 
have the clearest conceptions of its moral rectitude.' 
The moral rectitude of the Scriptures nauseates 
them. Let there be but the infant breathings of 
moral virtue in the soul, though it were the gentlest 
movement brooding upon the face of chaos, and the 
spirit within them will give a ready response to the 
still holier spirit within these Sacred Oracles, instinc- 
tively recognizing their beauty, their glory, their 
divinity. There are no more direct antipodes than 
sin and the Bible. He who would enjoy and profit 
by it, as a mere production of wisdom, must culti- 
vate a conformity to its rectitude. This great char- 
acteristic he will find stamped upon it everywhere — 
sanctifying its history, elevating its poetry, breathing 
itself into all its principles, and throwing a hallowed 
and joyous influence around its varied scenery. It 
will please no man, the state of whose mind is at 
war with its rectitude ; nor can he profit by it. so 
long as it displeases him. 



118 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE PECULIAR AND DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES OF 
THE BIBLE, EVIDENCE OF ITS DIVINE ORIGIN. 

The Gospel which was preached by ^^me," says 
the great apostle, ^^is not after man.'' His appeal 
for proof of its divine origin, was to the Gospel he 
preached. 

The peculiar and distinguishing doctrines of 
which this apostle was the advocate, are the doc- 
trines of the entire Scriptures. We affirm concern- 
ing them, that they are doctrines which never could 
have originated with men. 

The Scriptures not merely contain a code of 
morals, but a system of truth : great and distinctive 
doctrines. Nor may we abandon this position, be- 
cause believers in the divine inspiration of the Scrip- 
tures are not themselves agreed in their statements 
of these doctrines. Truth is not dependent on the 
opinions of men ; nor is it the less important because 
men differ in their views concerning it, or in their 
exposition of the Sacred Scriptures. The Scriptures 
contain truths that are their own ; truths which none 
but God knew, and which none but God was able 
to reveal. We find them in the Bible, and must 



{ 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. II9 

allow the Bible to utter them in its own way. If 
the great doctrines of the Bible furnish any inherent 
evidence of their divine origin, it is because they are 
peculiar, and truths nowhere else revealed. Let 
them speak for themselves. We will not, in oui 
argument, put any construction of our own upon 
them, but merely present them in the language of 
the Scriptures, ^^ without note or comment." 

One of these doctrines relates to the charade? 
of man befoi^e it is brought under the transforming 
power of Christianity. On this subject the repre- 
sentations of the Bible are plain, and easy to be 
understood. '^AU have sinned, and come short of 
the glory of God." ^' Both Jews and Gentiles are 
all under sin. There is none righteous, no, not one : 
there is none that understandeth, there is none that 
seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the 
way, they are together become unprofitable : there 
is none that doeth good, no, not one." 

If from this universality of human sinfulness, we 
inquire for its degree of intensity and power, we are 
instructed by such declarations as the following : 
'^ And God saw that the wickedness of man was 
great in the earth, and that every imagination of the 
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." 
^' The heart is deceitful above all things, and des- 
perately wicked." ^' The heart of the sons of men 
is full of evil, and madness is in their hearts." 
'^ When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free 
from righteousness." ^^I know that in me, that is 
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." '^And you 



120 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

hath he quickenedj who were dead m trespasses and 
sins." ^' The carnal mind is enmity against God ; 
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
can be." 

If we inquire for the origin of this depravity, the 
answer of the Bible is, ^^ Who can bring a clean 
thing out of an unclean? Not one." '' Behold, I 
was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother 
conceive me." ^' The wicked are estranged from 
the womb ; they go astray as soon as they be born, 
speaking lies." ^^ Thou wast called a transgressor 
from the womb." ^'That which is born of the 
flesh is flesh." ^' And were by nature the children 
of wrath, even as others." 

If we proceed to the question. How is this uni- 
versal, this deep-seated, this native sinfulness to be 
accounted for ? this problem also the Scriptures solve 
in declarations that are uniform and unequivocal. 
^^In Adam, all die." '' By the offence of one, judg- 
ment came upon all men to condemnation." ^^By 
one man's disobedience, many were made sinners." 

Another great doctrine of the Bible relates to that 
moral t7^ansforination of character which is indispen- 
sable to salvation. 

In regard to this, it teaches that this transforma- ! 
tion is necessary. ^^ Make you a new heart, and a 
new spirit, for why will ye die? " ^' Except ye be 
converted, and become as little children, ye shall not 
enter into the kingdom of heaven." ^^ Cleanse that 
is within, that the outside may be clean also." '' Ex- 
cept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. 121 

of God. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must 
be born again." 

It teaches the nature of this change, in such dec- 
larations as these : ^^ The eyes of your understand- 
ing being enlightened, that ye may know what is 
the hope of his calling." " Ye were once darkness, 
but now are ye light in the Lord." ^' A new heart 
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within 
you ; and I will take the hard and stony heart out 
of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh." 
^^ That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." '^ I 
will put my law in their inward parts, and write 
it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they 
shall be my people." 

In regard to the means by which this transfor- 
mation is produced, their language is, '^ The sower 
soweth the word." ^^ Faith cometh by hearing, and 
hearing by the word of God." '^ It pleased God by 
the foolishness of preaching, to save them that be- 
lieve." '^ In Christ Jesus have I begotten you through 
the Gospel." '' Being born again, not of corruptible 
seed, but incorruptible, by the word of God, which 
liveth and abideth forever." 

Of the efficient cause of this change, they say, 
'' Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, 
saith the Lord of hosts." ^^I have planted, ApoUos 
watered, but God gave the increase." '' Which were 
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of 
the will of man, but of God." ^' So then it is not 
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but 
of God that sheAveth mercy." ^^ You h^ith he quick- 

Bible aot of Mun. a 



122 THE BIBLE Is^OT OF MAN. 

ened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." ^' No 
man can come to me, except the Father which hath 
sent me draw him." ^' Thy people shall be willing 
in the day of thy power." '' We are his workman- 
ship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." 

Another important doctrine of which they speak, 
is the well-defined method of the sinne/^^s pai^don and 
acceptance with God, 

They teach what it is not, when they say, '' It 
is not by Avorks of righteousness which we have 
done." ^^KnoY/ing that a man is not justified by 
the works of the law." ^' If righteousness come by 
the law, then Christ is dead in vain." ^' Therefore 
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified 
in his sight." 

And they teach us what it is, when they say, 
^' Being justified freely by his grace, through the 
redemption that is in Christ Jesus." ^^ Being now 
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath 
through him." ^^ But now the righteousness of God 
without the law is manifested, being Avitnessed by 
the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of 
God which is by faith in Jesus Christ, unto all, and 
upon all them that believe." 

Another of the great doctrines of the Bible re- 
lates to the nature of true religion^ the distinctive 
character of Chinstian piety. On this subject its 
instructions are greatly extended, and exhibited in a 
great variety of forms. 

It admonishes us of a religion that is spurious, in 
such declarations as these : '' They have not turned 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. 123 

unto me with their whole heart, but feignedly, saith 
the Lord.'' ^^ With their mouth, they shew much 
love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness." 
^^ Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but 
because ye did eat of the loaves, and were lilled." 
'' Many shall say unto me in that day, Lord, have 
we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name 
done many wonderful works ? To whom the king 
shall say, I know you not, Avhence je are ; depart 
from me, all ye workers of iniquity." 

They also define and delineate the religion tliat 
is genuine. It is ^^ the love of God shed abroad in 
the heart by the Holy Ghost ;" and the love of God 
that '^keepeth his commandments." It is the char- 
ity, without which all else ^^profiteth nothing." It 
is ^^not meat and drink, but righteousness, and 
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." These emo- 
tions they uniformly represent as supreme and para- 
mount in every bosom where they exist. '^ If any 
man will be m^y disciple, let him take up his cross 
and follow me." ^-He that will save his life, shall 
lose it ; and he that Avill lose his life for my sake, 
the same shall find it." 

Another great and peculiar doctrine of the Bible 
relates to the purpose of God in extending his grace 
and salvation to a chosen people. Here its language 
is cautious, well selected, and emphatic. ^' Many 
are called, but few are chosen." '' As many as were 
ordained to eternal life, believed." ^' Chosen in Christ 
before the foundation of the world." ^^Predesti- 
nated unto the adoption of children." '' The called 



124 I'HE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

of God according to his purpose ; for whom he did 
foreknow, them also he did predestinate to be con- 
formed to the image of his Son.'' '^ The election 
hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded." 

It is also among the cardinal truths of the Bible, 
that all the incorrigible enemies of God shall be 
punished with everlastijig destruction^ and that their 
sufferings shall be literally without end. "• Verily, 
thou shalt by no means come out thence, until thou 
hast paid the uttermost farthing." ^^ Some shall 
awake to shame and everlasting contempt." ^^ To 
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." 
^^ Punished with everlasting destruction from the 
presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power." 
^^ The smoke of their torment ascendeth forever 
and ever." ^^ Cast into the fire that shall never be 
quenched." '^ Where their worm dieth not, and the 
fire is not quenched." ^^ Nigh unto cursing, whose 
end is to be burned." 

Nor may we overlook the great truth, that the 
Bible enforces the duty of believifig the Gospel, on 
all men who hear, or have the opportunity of hear- 
ing it. '' Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye 
perish from the way, when his Avrath is kindled but 
a little," '^ Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye 
to the waters, and he that hath no money : come 
ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk, 
without money, and without price." ^' Seek ye the 
Lord while he may be found ; call ye upon him 
while he is near." '' Let the wicked forsake his 
way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts : and let 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. 125 

him return unto the Lord, and he v/ill have mercy 
upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly 
pardon." '^ While ye have the light, believe in the 
light, that ye may be the children of light." ^' This 
is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom 
he hath sent." ^^ Repent and believe the Gospel." 
" God now commandeth all men everywhere to 
repent." ^^ If I say the truth, why do ye not believe 
me ?" The Bible allows no excuse, and admits no 
delay in the performance of this reasonable duty. 
'' When will ye be wise ?" ^^ Behold, now is the 
accepted time ; behold, now is the day of salvation." 
^' We are ambassadors for Christ : as though God 
did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's 
stead, be ye reconciled to God." The end and 
object of preaching the Gospel is said to be, '^ for 
obedience to the faith among all nations." 

The preceding specifications are not designed to 
present even a summary of Christian doctrine ; but 
merely some of those truths which have a strong 
prominence in the Bible, and the same prominence 
in this branch of our argument. The Bible con- 
tains these truths. It is not my object to expound 
them : let them be expounded by different denomi- 
nations of Christendom, fairly and with an honest 
conscience. To say nothing of the construction 
which must, in our judgment, be put upon them, 
our position is, that these truths, put upon them 
w^hat construction you will, could not have been of 
human invention, and that they clearly indicate a 



126 'i'HE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

heavenly origi7i. We maintain this position by the 
following reasons. 

In the first place, no false religion possesses 
such frank and unreserved honesty. Men are acute 
judges of everything in the form of religious impos- 
ture. Artifice in this matter, however ingenious, 
is very apt to be discovered ; it cannot endure severe 
scrutiny. There are spurious productions in the 
world, which assume to be of Divine authority, 
which no sober man regards in any other light than 
mere fabrication, and which are distinguished by 
nothing more than the absence of every criterion of 
divine inspiration. False religions are proverbially 
systems of practised concealment ; systems in which 
there is a designed immingling of truth and false- 
hood. 

This remark is abundantly verified, both by the 
paganism of Greece and Rome, and the Koran of 
Mahomed. Neander, in his ^' Ecclesiastical History 
of the first three centuries," remarks, that ^^ the rul- 
ing opinion of all the thinking men of antiquity was 
that pure, religious truth, could not be proposed to 
the multitude ; but only such a mixture of fiction, 
poetry and truth, as would serve to represent relig- 
ious notions in such a manner that they might 
make an impression on men whose only guide was 
their senses." Paganism had its mysteries, of which 
all Avere ignorant except the initiated. Each of the 
heathen gods, besides the worship paid to him in 
public, had a secret worship, to which none were 
admitted but those who were prepared by previous 



ITS DlSTliN:GUlSlimG DOCTRINES. 127 

ceremonies. This secret \vorship was termed '- tiio 
mysteries of the god/'' and was always paid in the 
night. I cannot describe it better than by saying, 
it was a system of free masonry. The initiated were 
bound, under the severest penalties, to conceal the 
secrets of these nocturnal orgies. Whatever their 
religion Avas, it was not published to the world. 

There is nothing of all this in the Bible. ¥f hat- 
ever else may be said concerning it, it is a bold and 
honest book. So every ingenuous mind decides that 
it should be. Of all subjects in the world, religion 
is one of universal concernment ; if it possesses any 
vital importance, it is equally as important to one 
man as another : it admits of no concealment of any 
of its principles from any class, or part of mankind. 
Nor will it be denied that it is one of the distinctive 
features of the religion of the Scriptures, that it has 
no concealment. Its first messengers were commis- 
sioned to go publicly and boldly to proclaim their 
messages in the presence of the haughtiest monarchs 
and the proudest courts. The long succession of 
teachers and prophets under the Old Testament dis- 
pensation, addressed themselves to the entire Jewish 
nation. When the Founder of Christianity gave 
their commission to his apostles, he required them 
to ^^ go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to 
every creature." When the high priest '^ asked Jesus 
of his disciples and of his doctrine^'^^ Jesus answered, 
" I spake openly to the world ; I ever taught in the 
synagogue and in the temple, whither the Jews 
al vays resort, and in secret have I said nothing." 



128 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

Both Christ and his apostles everywhere uttered 
these great and distinguishing doctrines to which 
we have just referred. These truths are, and have 
been for centuries published to the world, without 
the least restriction or reserve, inviting scrutiny, and 
everywhere proclaiming, ^^ He that hath ears to hear, 
let him hear !" The Bible has not one concealed 
principle : it has no secret worship, no secret gov- 
ernment or policy, and no society of men that are 
bound by vows of secrecy. Its laws are public ; its 
institutions are established openly ; its solemn as- 
semblies, and all its rites and observances, have the 
nations for their witnesses. It has no stratagem, no 
management, no trimming, time-serving prudence, 
which reluctates at discovering its real sentiments. 
It has no Platonic distinction betv/een exoteric and 
esoteric doctrines, or the doctrines that are taught to 
the multitude, and the doctrines that are taught to 
the few. It has no concern lest its claims should be 
too freely canvassed, or its principles too extensively 
or thoroughly understood. It discusses a great va- 
riety of topics of vital interest to men, but it does so 
without embarrassment. It is far from being a dull 
and tame book, for the reason that it is an honest 
book. It speaks the mind and will of its Author 
with so much frankness, that when once men are 
interested in it, their interest is sure to be deep and 
permanent. While it makes no boast of originality, 
and affects nothing of a self-glorying and sturdy 
independence of thought, it exhibits truth with a 
simplicity and fearlessness that are never controlled 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. 129 

by the opinions of men, and that ask no indulgence. 
Every attentive reader must have been impressed 
with this peculiarity of the Scriptures ; and have a 
strong conviction, that, in this respect, they differ 
from that caution and reserve which mark the pro- 
ductions of an impostor. 

The object of an impostor is to practise decep- 
tion ; he could scarcely fail to wrap up his system 
in some disguise. He would never disclose such 
truths as those which we have specified^ even if they 
had a place in his system. It would have been a 
very easy thing for the authors of the sacred books 
to have suppressed these truths ; and in so doing 
they would have silenced the cavils of a large class 
of opposers. But they were honest and truthful to 
the letter. Their object was truth — God's truth ; 
and therefore there is nothing kept back, nothing 
discolored, nothing softened by those delicate and 
deceptive touches of the pencil that suppress truth, 
or immingle truth with error. 

2. Our next remark is, that no false religion 
would have given these great and peculiar doc- 
trines the prominent place lohich they occupy in the 
Sacred Scriptures, Were we to adopt the loose 
notions of Christian doctrine which are adopted by 
some who call themselves Christians, we should feel 
that we had abandoned Christianity itself, and had 
become the advocates of a system but little in ad- 
vance of natural religion. But in so doing, Ave should 
have an inward conviction that we had abandoned 
one of the strongholds of a supernatural revelation. 

Bible not of Man. g# 



130 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

While the truths we have specified bear strong 
marks of peculiarity, they are every where prominent, 
and enter deeply into the foundations of the Chris- 
tian faith. They are represented in the Scriptures 
as revealed for the purpose of being believed ; nor is 
there any injunction more explicitly enforced, than 
that which makes it the duty of men to believe, 
love, and obey them. We are nowhere instructed 
in this book that it is of no consequence what men 
believe ; the Bible makes a true and cordial faith in 
God's word the turning point of their salvation, 
'^ Whosoever will not hearken to my words, I will 
require it of him." ^^ See that ye refuse not him 
that speaketh ; for if they escaped not who refused 
him that spake on earth, much more shall not we 
escape who refuse him that speaketh from heaven." 
It is a revealed principle of the Bible, that men reject 
its truths at their peril. To those who ^^ do not obey 
the truth, God will render tribulation and anguish." 
There may be ignorance of the cardinal truths of 
which we have spoken ; there may be strong preju- 
dices of education against them ; there may be 
objections to the form of expression in which they 
are presented in human formularies ; yet, the Bible 
itself being judge, no man can be at heart a Chris- 
tian who rejects that revelatio7i of them which is 
made in the Scriptures. 

Such is the importance which the Bible attaches, 
to these great truths as a matter of practice, and as 
furnishing a test of Christian character. Nor does 
it assign a less important place to them as a matter 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. 131 

of theory, and as the standard of a true Christianity. 
It styles everything else that is inconsistent with 
these, '' another gospel,'' and imprecates God's anath- 
ema upon those who preach it. These truths are 
represented as fundamental to the Gospel, as well 
as essential to piety. They hold the same place in 
the system of truth, which they hold in the system 
of grace and salvation. They are not points of mere 
abstract speculation, but constitute the sum and 
substance, the heart and soul, of all the instructions 
which the Bible contains. They maintain an in- 
dissoluble connection : if any one of them is fairly 
disproved, our confidence is lost in the whole. Take 
away the Scriptural doctrine of human sinfulness, 
and there is no need of the doctrine of regeneration ; 
nor of the doctrine of redemption through the blood 
of Christ ; nor of a preached Gospel ; nor of the doc- 
trine of discriminating and electing grace ; nor of 
the doctrine of everlasting punishment. Take away 
the doctrine of everlasting punishment, and all the 
other doctrines fall with it. Deny the Divine pur- 
pose to save a part of mankind, and all the correla- 
tive truths which make up and fulfil that purpose, 
have no place in the sacred record. These great 
truths are therefore not only found in the Bible, but 
are essential to the existence of Christianity, and 

lie at the foundation of the whole method of grace 

through the Redeemer. 

We affirm, that no false religion would have 

given such doctrines this prominence. An impostor 

would have been too wary to have done this ; he 



132 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

never could have been so insensate as to have in- 
sisted on these great pecuharitieSj as constituting the 
pith and marrow of his rehgion. 

It is the object of false religions to make the 
way to heaven a broad and easy path, and strew it 
with flowers. On no subject were the writers of 
the sacred volume more strongly tempted to prac- 
tise a sort of ^^ pious fraud/' than by suppressing 
these pungent and heart-searching truths, and thus 
making the way of life easier than it is, and holding 
forth inducements to piety, that might be deceptive 
and ensnaring. But they never do this. False relig- 
ions are anxious to multiply converts at the expense 
of truth ; the Bible nowhere manifests any such soli- 
citude. These great truths sound the note of caution 
and alarm, and bid men count the cost of becoming 
Christians. In no instance do the sacred writers 
conceal the trials or embarrassments that are inci- 
dent on a firm attachment to the truth of God. A 
cautious and sagacious deceiver would never have 
deduced from the truths he had uttered, the prac- 
tical result, " Straight is the gate and narrow is 
the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be 
that find it ;" nor the equally solemn declaration, 
^^ Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and ^^ 
many there be which go in thereat." Nor would ^1 
truths that necessarily lead to such a result, ever 
have found a place in the Bible, had it been the pro- 
duction of a deceiver. False religions urge men to 
the adoption of their systems of error, from unhal- 
lowed and unworthy motives; the Bible, on the 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. ]33 

Other hand, urges them to truth and duty, and for 
truth and duty's sake. It nowhere instructs men, 
that if they receive these great truths and practise 
the duties they enjoin, it is of no consequence 
by what motives they are influenced. It deals 
frankly in this matter. It reveals great and cardi- 
nal truths ; it urges them upon the conscience by 
the authority of God, and by their own intrinsic 
excellence, and then leaves them to do their own 
execution. 

3. Another remark in relation to these truths is, 
that no false i^eligioii would have disclosed truths 
that are so unwelcome and obnoxious to the human 
heart. The object of the Bible is not to please 
men, but to instruct and save them. Hence it with- 
holds no truth, be it ever so unwelcome. While it 
evinces no desire to excite the hostility of men, or 
to excite, or confirm their prejudices against the 
truth ; so far is it from shrinking from a disclosure 
of the most unwelcome truths, that these are the 
truths on which it insists with the greatest urgency. 
Instead of interesting men for an hour, its object is 
to interest them for eternity. Instead of fearing 
their displeasure, it lays its account for it, and pro- 
claims these unwelcome truths ^^ whether men will 
hear, or whether they will forbear." Instead of 
offering incense to their pride, its object is to bring 
their hearts to the test of truths the most humbling. 
Instead of descanting, however wisely, and learnedly, 
and beautifully upon such truths as these, they sim- 
ply hold them up to the inspection of men in all 



134 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

their transparency, and illumined by the lights of 
heaven. 

Does it require any labored argument to prove 
that these truths are unwelcome and obnoxious to 
the human heart. We appeal to the nature of these '\ 
truths themselves, to the conscious hostility of rnqn i 
towards them, to the history of the past, and to all 
human observation, where these truths are faithfully 
exhibited, if it be not so ? Men do not love to be 
told they are such sinners as the Bible represents 
them. Our race is a proud one. No child loves to 
be told its faults. Men who believe the Bible to be 
true, quarrel with its faithful delineations, and its 
unsparing rebukes of human wickedness. These 
representations are most humiliating to the self-com- , 
placent heart of man. The great mass of men can- 
not bear to be told that they are so vile. Not a few 
are there who, like the hearers of Stephen, almost 
^^ gnash upon" the preacher ^^ with their teeth," who 
boldly takes the part of the Bible, and tells them to 
their faces how vile they are in God's sight. So of ' 
every truth in detail, to which we have referred. 
The effect which these truths produce upon the 
minds of wicked men is a very powerful and pain- 
ful effect, and they resist them as long as they can. . 
They are truths which do not allow the least apol- 
ogy for sin ; they are strong and heavy truths ; they 
are like the fire and the hammer which breaketh the 
rock in pieces ; they axe the axe ^^ laid at the root 
of the trees, and every tree that bringeth not forth 
good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire." 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. I35 

Wicked men want a different sort of Bible from 
this. They suppress such Scriptures ; they pro- 
scribe them ; they forbid the reading of them in the 
vernacular tongue ; they burn them by thousands ; 
they say unto God, Depart from us ; and to his min- 
isters, '^ Speak unto us smooth things ; prophecy 
unto us deceits." They are inveterate enemies of 
these great truths, because these truths themselves 
make exhibitions of God such as the carnal mind 
has no delight in. They enforce claims which such 
a mind does not admit. They demand the sacri- 
fices of its idols ; they subject it to trials it cannot 
think of encountering. They would fain pull down 
and demolish the stately edifice of its pride ; subdue 
its will to the will of the Great Supreme ; and do 
actually throw all its interests and itself into the 
hands of God, as the clay is in the hands of the 
potter. 

Hence the war — the bitter war, the everlasting 
war. They often so lash and scourge the sinner, 
that he is conscious of the conflict. His reason is 
enlisted against them ; he summons all the powers of 
argument to show that they are not found in the 
Bible ; and if found there, cannot be true ; and if 
true, free him from his obligations. But above all, 
is his heart enlisted against them. He complains 
that he has a hard master. He rebels and replies 
against God ; and with the sinners of other timxCs 
demands, ^^ Who hath resisted his will ?'' There is 
no one of these great truths that accommodates 
itself to the wishes of men. They ever have been, 



136 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

and still are obnoxious, nay, nauseating truths. With 
all their boasted liberality, the most liberal are dis- 
satisfied with them ; nor is it any small cause of 
offence to them, that they are received by others. 
They are tolerant of error, but they have no tole- 
rance for such truths as these. They have charity 
for all, for everything save these, and such as these. 
These are the truths for which they stoned the 
prophets, killed the apostles, and crucified the Lord 
of glory. These are the truths for which so many 
thousands have been burnt at the stake, and lan- 
guished in dungeons, and been driven from among 
men like beasts of prey. They are among the 
severest tests of the moral state of the heart which 
can be applied to it, and when applied, never fail to 
indicate its hostility to God and righteousness. It 
is one of the most painful and self-denying duties 
imposed on the Christian ministry, to enforce these 
great truths ; because there is not one of them which, 
when exhibited in its true light, is even tolerable to 
an earthly mind. Our argument, therefore, is no far- 
fetched argument. A religion got up by trick and 
imposture, never could have disclosed such truths. 
They are ^^made of sterner stuff" than that which 
the mind of an impostor would ever have thought 
of handling. It is impossible they could have been 
inwoven, ever so artfully, into a false religion. No 
impostor would ever have thought of palming them 
upon the world. He would not have ventured thus 
to expose his system and himself to infuriate hos- 
tility. Men do not like such leaders as these ; and 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. I37 

no smooth-faced and false-hearted impostor would 
have jeoparded such a revelation to such a world as 
this. Can it be conceived that such truths origi- 
nated with men ? Or if men could have revealed 
them, what inducement had they to make such a 
revelation, in opposition to all the favor and influ- 
ence of those whose favor and kindness an impostor 
would desire to conciliate ? It is puerile to deny 
that these truths are contained in the Bible ; it is 
madness to suppose they originated with men. The 
unwelcome character of this class of truths, there- 
fore, will forever stand a living monument of their 
heavenly origin. 

4. The last remark in relation to these truths is, 
that they are fatal to the success of that religion of 
which they compose so important a part^ ujiless it be 
from, God, A religion which contains so many 
truths which men hate ; truths so honestly and 
boldly revealed ; truths which stand forth so une- 
quivocally, and that are cemented with the deep 
foundations of Christianity ; any impostor must have 
seen would be absolutely fatal to its extensive pro- 
pagation in the world. If the Bible had been the 
work of men, one of the first objects at which its 
authors would have aimed, would have been to have 
constructed it in such a manner as not to be abhor- 
rent to the views of its readers. It would seem to 
be indispensable to the success of such an imposture, 
not to pursue a course in which it must necessarily 
encounter vigorous, opposing influences. 

One of the strong objections to Christianity of 



138 '^^^^^ BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

that champion of mfidelity, Lord Herbert, is that it 
contains what he is pleased to call ^^ disgusting doc-, 
trines." The use he would make of this fact is,j 
that the religion of nature is to be preferred to the] 
religion of Christ. The use we would make of it is, | 
that a religion that contains these humbling andj 
self-denying truths, never could have been pro- 
pounded by an impostor with any hope of thus im- 
posing on the credulity of mankind. 

There is no principle more clearly revealed in 
the Bible, than that if men become converts to its 
doctrines, they must become so, not by the power 
of the sword, not by the force of civil enactments, or 
ecclesiastical influence and authority, but freely, and 
on sober, deliberate conviction. ^' My son, give me 
thine heart." ^^ The weapons of our warfare are not 
carnal." There was nothing in the learning, or per- 
sonal influence, either of the prophets of the Old 
Testament, or the apostles of the New, on which 
they could rely for the successful propagation of 
the doctrines they taught. They had no alliance 
with the power of civil governments ; civil govern- 
ments were opposed to them. They could not 
promise Avealth, station, nor honor to their followers, 
but the rather, poverty, degradation, and suffering. 
If they were impostors, their only hope of success 
was in so framing their system of falsehood that men 
would naturally and easily fall in with it, and their 
pliant convictions be secured without any great sac- 
rifice of their natural inclinations. This is the way 
in which false religions have ever obtained their 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOGTRINKS. ] 39 

partial and temporary ascendancy. The only way 
in which they can hope for success is, by abstain- 
ing from all serious conflict Avith the prepossessions 
of men ; by forbearing to contend with them ; by 
freely accommodating themselves to their previous 
habits of thought. 

The Scriptures pursue directly the opposite 
course ; they do so deliberately, and with a full 
view of the difficulties which they must encounter. 
Instead of anticipating the kind regards and compla- 
cency of men, they count on their neglect, their 
disesteem ; they even predict their hostility, their 
contempt. They have a controversy with men in 
the very doctrines they teach. ^' Think not," says 
Jesus of Nazareth, '^ that I am come to send peace 
on the earth : I came not to send peace, but a 
sword." In its own nature, his religion is a religion 
of peace ; but it has warring elements to contend 
with. When we advert to the w^orld to which it is 
addressed, to the spirit to which it is opposed, to the 
powers of darkness with which it is professedly 
brought into collision, we see that it has conflicts. 
It is the spirit of truth contending with every form 
of long sanctioned error ; the spirit of good contend- 
ing with the spirit of evil ; the spirit of Christ con- 
tending with the spirit of the world. It is a remedial 
process ; and in order to be effectual, the remedy is 
severe. It is a purifying process ; there are filthy 
and stagnant waters that must be disturbed ; their 
very stench must go up, before an unobstructed and 
deal* channel is made for the river of life to run 



140 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. . 

through. It is a neutralizing process, in which het- 
erogeneous and repulsive elements meet and effer- 
vesce , before the inwrought elements of evil in the 
human heart are worked off. It is not peace, so 
long as man is the enemy of God, and error is 
opposed to truth. It is not peace, so long as the 
^•prince of this world" erects his standard, and mar- 
shals his legions wherever the proclamation is made 
for the guilty and the lost to enlist under the banner 
of the redeeming Saviour. 

It is not strange, therefore, that it contains truths 
which men are at war with. In resisting and repel- 
ling its claims, the learned have exhausted their 
learning, and the scoffing their wit and ridicule ; the 
great and the mighty, their influence and power ; 
while the mass of men to whom these truths have 
been addressed, have denounced them. It is scarcely 
conceivable that impostors would have proposed such 
a system of doctrines. It is impossible that they 
could have any hope of patronage in so doing. The 
most presumptuous impostor in the world could not 
hope, by such teaching, to carry the hearts of men. 
He must have known that such truths Avould have 
been everywhere spoken against, provoked opposi- 
tion and obloquy, and been subversive of his object. 
It is absurd to suppose that an impostor would 
invent a religion, towards which the human heart 
exhibits such a morbid and hostile sensitiveness, that 
instead of falling in with it, it should uniformly fall 
out with it. Such a religion, instead of finding 
friends and patrons, would not find a nook or corner 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. 141 

in the natural heart of man, where it v/ould be 
greeted with an honest welcome. 

If the writers of the Scriptures were impostors, 
not only was their enterprise desperate, but they 
must have foreseen it would be so. They might as 
well have undertaken to build a city on the waves 
of the ocean, as have hoped to establish such a 
religion in the hearts of men and in this apostate 
world, unless it were from God. The human heart 
never would have submitted to such truths as these, 
had they not come from God. No more than the 
ancient Hebrews would have submitted to have been 
conducted by Moses, unless God had been with him ; 
no more than they would have submitted to their 
burdensome rites and ceremonies, their costly sacri- 
fices and oblations, unless they had been of Divine 
appointment ; no more than they would have con- 
sented to their reluctant invasion of the land of 
Canaan, and their slaughter of its inhabitants, unless 
they had been commanded, and scourged, and forced 
to it by the God of heaven — would such truths as 
those of which we have spoken have found a dwell- 
ing among men, had they not carried with them the 
evidence that they were not of human invention, 
but the truth of God. No more than Moses, if he 
had been an impostor, could have enforced his own 
personal authority upon the stiff-necked and rebel- 
lious Jews, could prophets and apostles, in revealing 
and enforcing such truths, have hoped for the least 
success, had they not come to men with the con- 
vincing demonstration that they came in the name, 



142 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

and by the authorityj of the great God. Just as 
Moses found it necessary to demonstrate his divine 
legation by signs and wonders, and by that memo- 
rable series of miracles, both of judgment and mercy ; 
did the prophets and the apostles find it necessary to 
establish their commission by similar miracles, and 
thus give these unwelcome truths the sanction of 
God^s presence and authority. 

The reason why these, and similar truths, are 
not fatal to the successful propagation of Christianity, 
is not that men naturally love them ; it is beca.use 
they are not of human origin, and are associated 
with the mighty power of their Divine Author, 
giving all their splendid triumphs to truth and prin- 
ciple. If they are the life and vigor of Christianity, 
it is because they are '- the wisdom of God, and the 
power of God.'' Upon the hypothesis that Chris- 
tianity is a work of human invention, it is impossi- 
ble to account for the fact, that it has triumphed 
over such internal obstacles. So far from possessing 
anything in common with the spirit and tendency 
of human nature, it is diametrically opposed to them ; 
they are jarring, v/arring elements, nor do they come 
in contact without coming into a collision, in 
which the one or the other is the complete victor. 
Never Avas a system less conciliating to the human 
heart, or less accommodating to the deep-rooted pre- 
judices of men. Never could it have found a resting 
place in the bosom of Jew or Gentile, had it not 
been associated with the pov/er of God. Jewish 
Pharisees, and heathen sages, would never have be- 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. 143 

come converts to it, had it been a mere hmnan 
production. It despoiled them of everything — their 
self-confidencej their pubhc veneration, their wealth, 
their honors, their offices, and their employments ; 
nor did any of them embrace it but at the expense 
of all that the world holds dear. It is because it 
was clothed with a divine commission, and came as 
the power of God to salvation, that in the hands of 
men who themselves were looked upon as the off- 
scouring of their race, it made its way through the 
world ; and contrary to all the forebodings of its 
enemies, and all the laws of a merely human prob- 
ability, it became the religion of the lofty and the 
humble, of provinces and kingdoms, till it effected 
the most extraordinary revolution in human affairs, 
was reverenced by the common people, and en- 
throned in the palaces of princes. Its triumphs were 
triumphs over ignorance and knowledge, idolatry 
and superstition, power and weakness — in a word, 
over all the vices and all the passions of men, in 
those unholy combinations which gave a new direc- 
tion to human thought, and exerted a paramount 
influence over all the secret springs of hiiman con- 
duct. 

When the Founder of Christianity had com- 
pleted his great work on the earth, and was about 
to return to the heaven from which he came, he left 
these and other kindred truths as the great moral 
machinery by which his kingdom was to be estab- 
lished. He had accomplished all that was neces- 
sary to be accomplished by his incarnation and 



144 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

death, and it only remained for him to give direc- 
tions to his followers for the wise and successful 
conduct of this great enterprise in all future time. 
It is a beautiful view which here presents itself. It 
was his last direction ; it was all he had to utter for 
the guidance of future ages. And what was it that 
he uttered ? ^^ Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the Gospel to every creature." The instrumentality 
on which he relied for the progressive renovation 
of the world, was no other than the truths of his 
Gospel, He knew how unwelcome they were, and 
would be to the heart of man ; but his language was, 
Go and preach them. He knew that the ^^ heathen 
would rage, and the people imagine a vain thing ;" 
he knew that these truths would be '^ despised and 
rejected of men," a ^' stone of stumbling and rock 
of offence :" still this was his language, Go and 
preach them. He knew that they would be ^' a 
sign that shall be spoken against, that the thoughts 
of many hearts might be revealed ;" he knew that 
they would be ^^ seen and hated," ^^ hated without 
a cause ;" but his only direction was. Go and preach 
them. He knew that they would encounter the 
sophisms of unbelief, the contempt and scorn, the 
unrelenting hostility, and the infuriate rage of a 
world that lieth in wickedness ; but he did not 
modify the injunction. Go and preach them. He 
knew that different ages of the world, and different 
communities, would express their hostility to them 
in different forms. He knew that they would be 
subject to a chilling neglect and indifference, and 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. I45 

a disheartening formality and worldliness ; and he 
knew also that there would be seasons Avhen hatred 
would be added to indiiference, indignity to hatred ; 
when persecution would erect her gibbet, set up her 
rackj and light her fires ; yet. Go and preach theiii^ 
was his unaltered command. But because he knew 
these things, he did not leave them to prosecute the 
work alone. No : the gates of hell would let out 
their legions, to quench their rage in the blood of 
the saints : truths that Avould provoke such enmity 
could be effectual only as they were associated with 
the power of their Divine Author : and though he 
altered not, relaxed not the command. Go preachy 
he superadded the promise, '^ Lo^ I am with you.^ 
even to the end of the world." Never, if he were 
an impostor, did he act so weak a part as when he 
uttered such words as these. They were words, 
which to the eye of sense it was impossible to fulfil. 
If his immediate disciples might ever have been 
tempted to look upon him as a vile deceiver, it 
was then. 

But he was no deceiver. Christianity is true ; 
and he '^ who liveth and was dead, and is alive 
forevermore," is with Christianity. As a system 
of truth, she is prepared for this collision with an 
opposing world. She looked for it then ; she looks 
for it still. She meant to be the aggressor ; tliis 
aggressive character has marked her entire progress. 
But it was then, and it is still, with the assured 
confidence, that though the pen and the sword 
would be wielded against her, and her progress 

Bibl« not of Man J- 



146 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

would be through deep waters, she Avould ultimately 
triumph. 

Such is the argument, however imperfectly 
illustrated, for the divine origin of the Scriptures, 
from the peculiar and distinguishing doctrines they 
reveal. We have seen what these doctrines are, not 
in the form of any human expositions, but in the 
language of the Bible itself. We have seen the 
frankness, the unreserved honesty and boldness with 
which they are revealed. We have seen the prom- 
inent place they occupy in the sacred pages. We 
have seen how unwelcome and obnoxious they are 
to the human heart, and how absolutely fatal they 
are to the success of any system of religion that 
has not God for its author. We leave every fair 
and ingenuous mind to decide, whether an impostor 
would have been stupid enough to have inculcated 
such truths ; and whether a religion, so humbling, 
that, had it been false, it could not have survived 
one poor hour, is not of God. Truths so opposed 
to the prejudices of men, so much at war Avith 
human selfishness and pride, could never have been 
of human invention. It is irrational to suppose that 
any man, or set of men, any one impostor, or suc- 
cession of impostors, would have concocted a system 
of truths to which the human mind is, and ever has 
been, so hostile. These great doctrines of grace, so 
humbling to the sinner, and giving as they do all 
the glory to God, fully and faithfully exhibited and 
enforced, nmst be regarded ?ts among the strong 
proofs of the inspiration of the Scriptures. 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. 1 47 

The infidelity of the present age seems sensible 
of thiSj and betrays its weakness, and at the same 
time its siibtilty, by assailing not so much the truth 
and authenticity of Christianity, as, by its altered 
mode of warfare, assailing these great and essen- 
tial truths. Demolish these, and Christianity is no 
more. It is conceding too much to infidels to allow 
them to believe the Bible, and at the same time re- 
ject its fundamental truths. '^ If our Gospel be hid, 
it is hid to them that are lost." It is conceding too 
much for our argument to blink these truths. One 
of the best arguments for the divine origin of the 
Scriptures, will be found in a fearless exhibition of 
all their peculiar doctrines. The bold outlines, the 
energetic truths of the Bible, are essential to a clear 
and impressive statement of the argument itself. 
There are deep and difficult truths revealed in this 
Book of God, which some writers of great ability 
have taken leave to suppress ; while the little which 
their argument gains in popularity by so doing, it 
loses in strength. To overlook them is but present- 
ing the argument shorn of its glory. They are the 
key which introduces the reader to this temple of 
truth ; shows its symmetry, strength, and beauty, 
and indicates its Divine Builder. An impartial and 
thinking reader, in inspecting the treatises to which 
we refer, cannot help feeling that their authors were 
embarrassed by their hesitation to give prominence 
to the great and distinguishing doctrines of super- 
natural revelation. 

That men do not like these doctrines is no rea- 



148 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

son why they should not have a place in the argu- 
ment, but a weighty reason why they ought not to 
be suppressed. The argument needs the augmented 
force of these doctrines ; it is an emasculated argu- 
ment without them. Without them, the evidence 
of its divine origin, that is inherent in the Bible 
itself, is essentially defective. To my own mind it 
seems as if the man who rejects these, must reject 
the Bible itself; without them, it is very little in ad- 
vance of natural religion. Let a man call in question 
the infinite holiness and sovereignty of God; let 
him deny his comprehensive purposes; let him reject 
the Divinity and Atonement of Christ, and the sove- 
reign and special influences of the Spirit in renewing 
and sanctifying the people of God ; let him discard 
the essential difference between the righteous and 
the wicked, and suspend in an obscure and dubious 
atmosphere the doctrine of future and eternal re- 
wards and punishments, and wherein will his Chris- 
tianity differ from that of modern neologists ? The 
true method of exhibiting the self-evidencing power 
of the Scriptures, is by faithfully unfolding ^Hhe 
whole mind of God." Then only does the supreme 
intelligence of its Author exhibit itself, and his in- 
finite greatness and goodness shine forth in tracing 
out new paths of thought, and opening channels of 
aff'ection, never discovered by human reason. Infi- 
delity is perpetually changing its form. The truths 
which some modern infidels profess to learn from the 
Bible, Gibbon, Hume and Paine, learned from the 
light of nature. The same objections which these 



ITS DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES. I49 

bold and old-fashioned infidels urged against the 
Bible itselfj modern neologists urge against these 
great and essential truths. These ancient and mod- 
ern opposers of God's truth are in closer alliance 
than the latter are willing to acknowledge ; they are 
fellow-laborers in the same calling. It is no uncom- 
mon complaint from certain sources, that these great 
truths make men infidels, while they only show 
them to be so. Modern infidels have no quarrel 
with Christianity, when expurgated of these distinc- 
tive doctrines ; for as long as these doctrines remain, 
they proclaim their Author to be Divine. 



150 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 



CHAPTER y. 

THE RELIGION OF THE BIBLE A PROOF OF ITS 
DIVINE ORIGIN. 

To a being born for immortalityj it is in every 
view an inquiry of the first importance, whether he 
possesses true religion. If he does possess it, the 
final termination of his earthly career will be a glori- 
ous issue. '' When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, 
he shall receive a crown of glory which fadeth not 
away.'' Every consideration in the universe may 
well lead such a man to triumph. '^ The redeemed 
of the Lord shall return, and come with singing 
unto Zion ; everlasting joy shall be upon their head : 
they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and 
sighing shall flee away." 

But in deciding the question, whether he pos- 
sesses true religion, he must first decide what true 
religion is. On this point there is no small diversity 
of opinion throughout this wide world. There is 
the religion of Infidelity, as it exists ^n Christian 
lands ; there is the religion of Nature and tradition, 
in all the forms of polytheism and pagan idolatry ; 
there is the religion of Mahomed ; there is the relig- 
ion of the Chinese philosopher Confucius; there is the 
religion of Budhism, prevailing throughout the Bur- 



ITS RELIGION. 151 

man empire and all the comitries between Bengal 
and China ; and there are, to a great extent^ other re- 
ligions in different nations and tribes of men. It will 
liardly be contended that any of those just specified 
are worthy of confidence. Every one of them, to a 
greater or less extent, is a system of idolatry ^ miless 
it be the religion of Mahomed ; and it has often been 
shown, that in those particulars in which the religion 
of the Koran has preeminence above paganism, it 
has borrowed its features from the Sacred Writings. 

The word religion^ in its broadest and most 
comprehensive sense, is any system of faith and 
worship. In this sense, the word comprehends the 
belief and worship of all ages, all nations, all climes, 
which recognize a superior power, or powers, which 
govern the world. Every religion has its peculiari- 
ties ; and from its peculiarities we learn whether it 
is of human, or Divine origin. 

In addition to the religions above mentioned, 
there is the Religion of the Bible ; — a religion 
which is there taught, there delineated, and there 
exemplified ; and one which is found nowhere else, 
save where the Bible exerts its influence on the hu- 
man character. I propose in the present chapter to 
institute the inquiry, if the Religion that is deline- 
ated in the Bible j be not proof of its Divine origin 7 

This religion is not revealed equivocally, or 
darkly, or partially ; but stands forth prominently to 
the inspection of every reader. Every man who has 
the Bible in his hands, can see it and understand 
what it is. What then are its leading characteristics, 



152 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

and what is the evidence they furnish that the 
author of such a religion is the God of heaven ? 

It is important to our argument to remark, that 
in this inquiry we go not beyond the instructions 
of the Bible itself. The question is not, what was 
the religion of the early Christian fathers ; nor what 
was the religion of the dark ages; nor what the 
religion of the reformed churches ; nor what is your 
religion, or my religion ; but what is the religion of 
the Bible ? It is equally important also to bear in 
mind, that we do not here institute the inquiry, 
what is the religion which the Bible requires ; iox 
this we have already done in a preceding chapter ; 
but, what is the religion which the Bible delineates 
and exemplifies? The religion which the Bible re- 
quires^ and the religion which it actually produces^ 
may not be perfectly identified ; while the latter 
may furnish convincing evidence that it is of Divine, 
and not of human origin. 

1. We remark, then, that the religion delineated 
and exemplified in the Bible, is a religion founded 
in knowledge. It is not the offspring of igno- 
rance ; the basis of it is the knowledge of the truth. 
Knowledge alone does not constitute it, though 
without knowledge it does not exist. ^^' Though I 
speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and 
though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge^ 
and have not charity, I am nothing." Correct opin- 
ions of Christianity do not of themselves insure the 
existence of Christianity. To understand the truths 
of the Bible as a system, or science ; to be deeply 



ITS RELIGION. 153 

read and versed in them ; to bring to them learning 
and labor, and even a, natural fondness for moral re- 
search and disquisition, are not a sufficient pledge of 
the existence and power of piety in any individual 
bosom. But while the Bible is faithful in this cau- 
tion, it at the same time explicitly instructs us, that 
the knowledge of the truth is indispensable to true 
godliness. A piety that is the fruit of ignorance, 
finds no countenance in the Author of this instruc- 
tive volume, no place in its sacred pages. When it 
describes the character of an irreligious and ungodly 
world, it is a community where ^^ there is none that 
understandeth." When it describes the condition 
in which all true Christians once were, its language 
is, ^^ Ye were once darkness, but now are ye light in 
the Lord." It represents them as ^^ turned from 
darkness to light ;" as '' brought out of darkness into 
God's marvellous light ;" and as receiving ^' the 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the 
iace of Jesus Christ." Their progress in grace is 
represented as standing abreast with their progress 
in knowledge ; their upward path as a luminous and 
bright path. They are represented as ^^ filled with 
the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and 
spiritual understanding." Their minds are brought 
into contact with the truth ; their religion is thus a 
stable and dignified religion ; justly entitled to the 
preeminence of being the ^^ light of the world;" 
penetrating its regions of gloomy darkness, and ever 
opening new sources of wonder and praise. 

What a preeminence over all other religions, 

Bible n©t of Mail 7''*' 



154 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

coarse and low as they once were, and are still ! All 
false religions require ignorance to sustain them ; 
ignorance is one of their essential elements. Pagan 
worship is not based upon the knowledge even of 
its own religious system. Rude ignorance, and 
gloomy superstition, form the character of the entire 
religion of the pagan world. Their '^ understanding 
is darkened ;" they ^' worship they know not what :" 
the inscription on their altars is, '^ To the unknown 
God." The wisest of the heathen philosophers 
were the very persons Avho most deeply felt, and 
most bitterly bewailed their ignorance on all moral 
subjects. Cicero tells us, that there was a class of 
religious teachers in Rome, who could never look 
into one another's faces without laughing ; so deep 
was their consciousness that their teachings were 
preposterous. Reason and common sense are actually 
scandalized by their absurdities. Men are shut out 
from all that is worthy of the name of religion, so 
long as they are cut off from the knowledge of the 
truth. The religion of the Bible is the religion of 
light. God is the source of light ; himself '^ the 
Father of lights ;" and it will forever remain among 
the evidences in favor of the divine origin of the 
Scriptures, that the religion they inculcate is learned 
by studying the lessons of unequalled wisdom. 

2. Another fact in relation to the religion of the 
Bible is, that it is the religion of the heart. It is an 
inward religion, and not the religion of mere out- 
ward forms. Its work is not done when it has 
enlightened the understanding. It consists in '' re- 



ITS RELIGION. I55 

ceiving the truth in the love of it." Its object is to 
carry the heart ; to impart efficacy to right moral 
principles ; to control the affections, as well as the 
understanding ; and to infuse into the soul a mea- 
sure of the moral excellence of its Author. It does 
not overlook the forms of piety, but they are so few 
and simple as to become the natural and unstudied 
expressions of it, and are valued only as they are 
expressions of the internal spirit. There is no char- 
acteristic of the religion of the Bible more univer- 
sally, or uniformly inculcated, than this. It every- 
v/here insists upon right intentions as indispensable 
to the performance of any and every duty. It looks 
to the springs of action. /^ God is a Spirit, and they 
that worship him must worship him in spirit and in 
truth." To every other religious service its wither- 
ing rebuke is, '^ Who hath required this at your 
hands ?" However fair the outward appearance, it 
makes no account of the most fair and unblemished 
exterior, unless it flows from right principles and 
impulses. 

And what are these principles and impulses ? 
The first great article of all religion is that which 
regulates the aifections towards the object of its 
worship. True religion is founded in the relation 
which men sustain towards the Supreme Being. In 
this respect, the religion of the Bible is an intel- 
ligent and effective religion. It begins with God. 
The most compendious expression of it consists in 
love to God, This ruling affection of Heaven is here 
represented as the ruling passion of good men on the 



156 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

earth. A sense of duty does much towards forming 
the religious character required by the Bible ; but 
love to God does more. Where it exists at all, it 
is the strongest affection the soul ever exercises. 
There are almost endless ramifications of this radical 
principle, branching out in emotions, which, while 
they have a specific, partake of the same generic 
character. 

Sometimes they assume the form of holy fear 
and reverence ; and then their language is, ^' Who 
shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name, 
for thou only art holy P' 

Sometimes it is the form of confidence ; a confi- 
dence which gathers strength from every new view 
of the Divine character, and every fresh experience 
and conviction of his illimitable resources of wisdom, 
power and love. All the imagery of nature seems to 
be put in requisition, in order to furnish appropriate 
emblems of God's excellence, or a fitting expression 
of their confidence in him. ^^ The Lord God is a 
sun and shield ; he will give grace and glory ; no 
good thing will he withhold from them that walk 
uprightly." Image after image is multiplied, and 
they crowd upon one another as though the thoughts 
and affections could not find utterance. '' The Lord 
is my Rock, and my Fortress, and my Deliverer ; 
my God, my Strength, in whom I will trust ; my 
buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high 
tower V^ 

Sometimes these emotions rise to joy and trans- 
'port, and the subjects of them are heard to say, ^^ I 



ITS RELIGION. 157 

will rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the Holy One 
of Israel :" ^^ I will greatly rejoice in the Lord ; my 
soul shall be joyful in my God.'' Then again, 
breaking out in ecstasies of joy, they sing, ^'Blessed 
be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Avho only doeth 
wondrous things ; and blessed be his glorious name 
forever ; and let the whole earth be filled with his 
glory: Amen and amen!" And then, as though 
their own lips were mute, and their praise too inex- 
pressive, they invoke all inanimate nature as well as 
^^ everything that hath breath," to the delightful 
employment of praising God. 

If from these emotions towards God, we advert 
to those which the Bible describes toioards sin, and 
the character of men as sinners, we discover a spirit 
that is altogether peculiar to the piety there deline- 
ated. There is something strongly marked in those 
religious emotions which good men are here repre- 
sented as exercising in view of their own personal 
vileness. They imply the hatred of sin on account 
of its own intrinsic turpitude ; sorrow for it as com- 
mitted against God ; unfeigned self-abasement be- 
cause it is a violation of his law ; and turning from 
it unto God, through Jesus Christ. ^^ O my God, I 
am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face to thee, 
my God ; for our iniquities have increased over our 
head, and our trespass has grown up unto the heav- 
ens." ^^ O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, 
but unto us confusion of face, as at this day." 
*' Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done 
this evil in thy sight : that thou mightest be justified 



158 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." 
'' I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; but 
now mine eye seeth thee : wherefore I abhor myself, 
and repent in dust and ashes." 

Another peculiarity in these inward principles 
and impulses, is the faith which the Scriptures 
exemplify. They speak largely of a principle of 
conduct, a strong internal affection, which consists 
in an affectionate and active confidence in the 
veracity and promise of God. There are things 
apprehended and rested upon by the faith of the 
Bible, which ^^eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor 
hath entered into the heart of man." It is a faith 
which realizes the existence of the only living and 
true God in the grandeur and glory of his creation, .; 
in the wisdom, goodness, and power of his provi-". 
dence, and in the method and work of his grace. It 
recognizes him everywhere and in all things ; every- 
where seeing and enjoying him ; everywhere walk- 
ing with him, hearing a voice which nothing else 
hears, seeing a hand which nothing else can see, 
and discovering that heart of Infinite love which 
nothing else discovers. 

There is no burden of sin from which the faith 
of the Bible does not deliver ; no fear it does not 
dissipate ; no spiritual enemy it does not subdue ; no 
indifference and coldness it does not supersede by 
the fervor of a glowing love. To the mind that 
exercises it, it is the bond of affiance between the 
creature and the Creator, the sinner and his Re- 
deemer, the death of time and the life of eternity, 



I 



ITS RELIGION. 159 

the grave and the resurrection, this low earth and 
the heaven where he expects to dwell. It is '' the 
substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of 
things not seen." It is his strength in weakness, 
his courage in difficulty, his victory over the world. 
It lives under the light of God's countenance ; it 
dwells near his throne of grace ; it endures as seeing 
him who is invisible. To repeat its language, its 
assurance, its triumphs, as they are recorded in the 
Bible, would be to recite no small portion of the 
entire Scriptures. 

Such are the principles and impulses of the 
religion delineated in the Scriptures. They form 
its heart and soul ; and ^^ God giveth it a body as it 
hath pleased him." 

Now we affirm that such a religion never was of 
human origin. Human religions, all the world over, 
have respect to the garb and manners of piety, rather 
than to its spirit and soul. They know nothing of 
the heart and inward life, but are made up of out- 
ward rites and ceremonies. Ponderous volumes have 
been written with the view of illustrating them ; but 
they consist of historical annotations and curious dis- 
courses upon the ceremonies and religious customs 
of the various heathen nations. Motives are not at 
all essential to the religious character, and even the 
perfection, of their rites. There is not to be found 
in all the records of false religions, one such senti- 
ment as this : '^ Having a form of godliness, but 
denying the power thereof: from such turn away." 
Their prayers are vain repetitions to some imaginary 



160 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

deity ; their most meritorious acts are bathing m 
some hallowed river, or with a fool-hardy and vain- 
glorious exultation, inflicting some cruel torture on 
their own bodies. If we inquire what their aff*ec - 
tions are towards God, they are ^'without God in 
the world." They had gods enough; they had 
them by thousands ; but what emotions did they 
inspire, and to what heart religion did they impel 
the worshippers at their altars ? You seek for relig- 
ion among them, and what do you see ? Piety, rev- 
erence, love, hope, confidence, joy? No: none of 
these ; but bacchanalian revels, and every form and 
degree of disgusting abomination. We do, indeed, 
read of fearful terrors of conscience among them; 
but where do we find any just views of sin, and of 
that inward repentance which produces outward 
reformation? We read of reason and philosophy, 
but in vain do we look for the faith that purifies the 
heart and works by love. Proud reason knows no- 
thing of it. It never learned to '' become a fool, that 
it might be wise." It is not found in pagan lands. 
Pagan philosophy is a stranger to the simplicity, the 
ardor, the strength of its confidence. The works 
of nature do not warrant such a faith ; reason does 
not discover the foundations of it ; conscience, be- 
nighted, wounded, does not even conjecture that 
there is balm for all her wounds, and light for her 
midnight darkness. 

Religions that are thus exhausted in outward 
rites, and never reach the heart, may well be of 
human origin. The religion of the Bible is alto- 



ITS RELIGION. 161 

gether a different religion. Apart from the religion 
here delineated, and the religion of which this Book 
IS the source, there is no such heart religion in the 
world, nor has there ever been any such. Men who 
make their own gods, and make them conformable 
to their own practices and inclinations, can easily 
make their own religion. But the God of the Bible 
is not the work of men's hands, nor is the religion 
of the Bible of this low origin. 

3. Another characteristic of the religion of the 
Bible is its unearthly tendency. This is a feature 
Avhich gives coloring and character to the Avhole relig- 
ious landscape there portrayed. There is a purity and 
loftiness of sentiment in the Bible, a heavenward 
tendency and unearthliness in the best affections it 
delineates, which cannot be overlooked by the atten- 
tive reader of its pages, and which cannot be mis- 
taken for an earth-born religion. This Book alone 
makes a due estimate of the things that are seen and 
the things that are unseen. It has eternity for its 
object ; nor can the religious character it produces 
be understood, save as it is directed towards invisi- 
ble and eternal realities, and becomes progressively 
amalgamated with them. 

In all its exemplifications of piety, we find this 
state of mind holding an observable prominence. 
The sensual bias and tendency are here counter- 
acted, and a spiritual and heavenly one imparted 
and sustained. The mind is gradually liberated 
from the degrading and disloyal thraldom of earth, 
and willingly, cheerfully made subject to what is 



163 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

^' incorruptible J unde filed, and fadeth not away/' 
False estimates of this world are here rectified; 
heaven is the mark towards which all its disciples 
are represented as pressing forward ; the governing 
principle of their desires and conduct is their prefer- 
ence of the future to the present ; and the conflict 
in which they are employed involves an habitual 
resistance to the usurpations of earth. They are 
^' strangers and pilgrims on the earth/' having here 
^^no continuing city." With Moses, they '^ choose 
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, 
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; for 
they have respect to the recompense of reward." "\ 
With Paul they can say, ^^I reckon the sufferings 
of this present time not worthy to be compared with 
the glory which shall be revealed in us." Often did 
they look upon the world with weariness, and even 
sadness; often had they a ^^ desire to depart and be 
with Christ ;" while they might sometimes be heard 
to say, ^^ O that I had wings like a dove ; for then 
would I fly away, and be at rest !" 

We affirm that such a religion is not of earth. 
Men never devised it. Their uniform character 
shows that such a religion is unnatural to them. 
All experience and observation show, that men have 
always inverted the true order of things, by putting 
that first which should be last, and that last which 
should be first. The Bible alone aims at suppress- 
ing and subverting this anarchy, by restoring the 
dominion of the spiritual and superior over the infe- 
rior and the sensual. This misrule is here arrested 



ITS RELIGION. 163 

and broken, and in a process of decay and dissolu- 
tion. But it is not a natural process to man, and 
does not fall in with any of the religions of his de- 
vising. That single sentence, '^ Wherefore, come 
ye out from among them, and be ye separate, and 
touch not the unclean thing, and I will be a Father 
unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, 
saith the Lord Almighty,'' is itself proof of a relig- 
ion of unearthly origin. The memoirs of men in 
all lands where the Bible is not known, or where it 
is rejected, or where it is not obeyed, furnish no 
examples of such a religion. Paganism has no such 
biography, because it has no such heaven-descended 
principles. '^ Pure religion and undefiled before God 
and the Father is this. To visit the fatherless and 
widows in their affliction, and to keep himself un- 
spotted from the world." No school of philosophy 
ever trained up a single pupil thus, or ever thus 
taught the world. Men are not accustomed to such 
a religion, even in thought ; they are ignorant of it ; 
nor is there any original portrait of it, save in that 
Book of which the Spirit of God is the Author. 

4. Another characteristic of the religion of the 
Bible is, that it is a progressive and growing relig- 
ion. Just as in the world of nature there is first the 
blade, then the stalk, then the ear, then the full corn 
in the ear ; just as in the kingdom of Providence na- 
tions and all their improvements, from small begin- 
nings, increase, and become enlarged and extended ; 
just as the little infant from a helpless babe becomes 
a vigorous youth, and then comes to matured and 



164 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

well-informed manhood — so the religion of the Bible, 
both in the heart of man, and in the world, from its 
resemblance to a grain of mustard-seed, comes to 
resemble an overshadowing and fruitful tree ; and 
from a babe in knowledge and grace, reaches the 
'' measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 
By nature, the soul is '' dead in trespasses and sins." 
On the first communication of spiritual life, its pulse 
is feeble and languid, its perceptions are obscure, 
and it is ^' a day of small things." But he ^^who 
begins this work, performs it until the day of Jesus 
Christ." The promise, the love, and the power of 
God are pledged to carry it forward. Its growth is 
slow, but by and by it becomes vigorous and strong. 
The spiritual appetite becomes healthful and manly ; 
it hungers and thirsts after righteousness ; and the 
new-born babe, who once desired the sincere milk 
of the word, has now become like those who have 
need of strong meat. 

It is not a mere miniature sketch of the Divine 
likeness, that the child of God always bears ; but 
one whose features are destined to stand out in bold 
relief, and more and more like a full and beautifully 
adorned portrait. His path is like the rising light, 
which '' shine th more and more unto the perfect 
day." He ^^ flourishes like the palm-tree, and grows 
like the cedar in Lebanon." He ^^ grows in grace 
and in knowledge," '' following on to knoAV the 
Lord," increasing in the spirituality of his afl'ections 
and in the uniformity of his obedience. He pos- 
sesses a growing congeniality with the mind and 



I 



ITS RELIGION. 165 

will of God ; in his ascending progress he has no 
appointed place of rest ; nor does he stop in his 
career, nor is he satisfied, until he awakes in the 
perfect likeness of his God and Saviour. 

This is a most beautiful characteristic of the 
religion of the Bible, and found nowhere else save 
in Bible religion. The world is full of religion, but 
it is not such a religion. There is arrested atten- 
tion, and awakened thought in Christian lands, 
where there is no growing piety. There is deep 
conviction, and agitating fear, where there is no 
growing piety. There are transient hope and mo- 
mentary joy, and the cloud-like goodness of Ephraim 
that passeth away, where there is no growing piety. 
There are hypocritical professions, where there is no 
piety at heart, because there is none that is perma- 
nent and growing. There is the semblance of relig- 
ion in lands that are not Christian ; lands that are 
enticed by the lying wonders of the Man of Sin ; 
lands that are covered with the veil of Mahomedan 
imposture ; lands that have no other influences than 
the glimmerings of natural reason ; but it does not 
shine out with a less varying and more increasing 
light. It is like the path of the meteor, which no 
laws of the moral world can trace. It is like the 
sudden flash of the lightning, which, when it is 
over, leaves the sky in deeper darkness. It has no 
perception of truth ; no nice discrimination of mo- 
tives ; no tenderness of conscience ; no steady and 
growing exhibition of excellence. It is like the 
piety of a few thinking and thoughtful minds in the 



166 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

pagan world ; like the dreams of Socrates, or the 
hopes of PlatOj or the morals of Seneca ; it is a sud- 
den scintillation, or it may be coruscation, of moral 
sentiment : we see it for the moment, but we look 
again, and it is gone ; it is all darkness, death, and 
sin. It is not the religion of the Bible, because it is 
not of God. 

5. It is also a remarkable feature of the religion 
of the Bible, and one which has no unimportant 
place in our argument, that with all these excel- 
lencies which we have mentioned, the religion 
which was possessed by the saints of the Old and 
New Testament is represented in the Bible as an 
imperfect religion. It professes to be so ; and it is 
an interesting fact that it makes this open and un- 
embarrassed avowal. 

We might naturally suppose that a religion that 
cjomes from God is a perfect religion. This religion 
itself is a perfect religion ; but the votaries of it are 
not perfect. When infidels impugn the religion ex- 
emplified in the Scriptures, because it is not sinless ; 
when they point to the sins of good men, as their 
character is delineated in the Scriptures, and exult- 
ingly demand. Can such a religion be from God ? we 
reply to these sneers, that this is just what the 
Scriptures themselves would lead us to look for. 
The Bible itself teaches us, that there is no such 
thing as a sinless religion among men. It does 
indeed require a perfect religion. There is no abate- 
ment of the binding precept^ no relaxation of the 
injunction, ^^ Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven 



ITS RELIGION. 167 

IS perfect." If this Book did not teach us that it is 
the duty of men to become perfect, it would furnish 
a good and solid reason for Avickedness ; and in ihis 
fact alone, would carry on the face of it conclusive 
evidence that it is not of divine origin. 

It is in its own nature fitted to produce a perfect 
religion. It is itself a perfect system of truth and 
duty, and did men perfectly obey it, their religion 
would be perfect. But it nowhere delineates and 
exemplifies a perfect religion in the character and 
conduct of men. It does not in Abraham ; nor in 
Lot ; nor in Moses ; nor in Aaron ; nor in David, in 
Jeremiah, in Peter, in Paul, nor in any of the char- 
acters to which it attributes such high and command- 
ing moral excellencies. It teaches unequivocally, 
that if we say we have no sin, ^ve deceive ourselves, 
and ^^the truth is not in us." The best men of 
whom it speaks are described as imperfect men ; the 
most splendid examples of heaven-born piety are 
there represented as obscured by imperfection. The 
saints of the Old and New Testaments had sins to 
confess and bewail ; sins to struggle with and de- 
clensions to mourn over ; sins that made them feel 
their dependence, and drove them to the throne for 
grace to help in the time of need ; and sins that 
filled them with self-abasement and humiliation. 
The Bible makes us acquainted with just such a 
religion as in fact exists, and as is possessed by all 
true Christians in every age of the world. What if 
it had been otherwise, and the Christians they 
describe were all of such high attainments as to be 



168 THE BIBLE ISOT OF MAN. 

sinless and perfect ? How ill-befitting had such a 
book been as a revelation from God to fallen man ! 
How withering to the hopes of the best of men, to 
be driven to the conclusion that they have no relig- 
ion at all, because they have not a perfect and sin- 
less religion ! How discordant with facts as existing 
in the entire history of good men, had such a reve- 
lation been ! How untrue ! How false, and un- 
worthy of credit ! There is wisdom, there is truth 
in a revelation that delineates human goodness as 
imperfect, and portrays it just as it is — wisdom and 
truth, of which God alone is the Author. 

It were easy to enlarge on the peculiar nature of 
the religion of the Bible, and in every one of its char- 
acteristics point out the evidence of its divine origin. 
Its thousand topics of thought, thought which enters 
into the religious character of which it speaks, are 
topics such as no uninspired mind would have origi- 
nated. Its jealous God, and yet its God of conde- 
scending mercy— its way of life and its way of 
death — its Christian's prospect and its Christian's 
retrospect — his wounded spirit caused and cured — 
his self-suspicion and his confidence — his spiritual 
participation of Christ, and his consequent exposure 
to the hostility of the world — his watchfulness and 
his faithfulness — the expansive tendency of his re- 
ligion, and yet his peculiar fellowship w^ith the com- 
munity of the faithful — his enemies and his con- 
quests — God dwelling in him, and he in God — all 
these, and other kindred topics, evince the religion 



^ JTS RELIGION. jgr^ 

of the Bible to be one of higher than aiiy earthly 
parentage. 

The process too by which the religious character 
-iescribed in the Bible is formed, is there distinctly 
marked out. It is a resurrection from the deatia 
of sm ; a moral renovation, a new creation by the 
mighty power of God. It is not the production of 
nature ; it is not the effect of moral suasion ; it is not 
supermduced by human ingenuity, or human disci- 
pline ; but originates, and is wrought out in all ifg- 
parts by the grace and power of God. It is a beau- 
tiful and noble moral structure, ornate and heavenly, 
whose builder and maker is the Holy One, who is 
the Author of the new heavens and the new earth 
wherein dwelleth righteousness. For such a relig- 
ion we fearlessly make the demand, Is it from 
Heaven, or is it of men? Can the Book which 
reveals it be a forgery? Does it disclose the heart 
and hand of an impostor ? Did men ever originate 
such a religion as this ? Can there be a doubt of its 
divine origin? 

It were a melancholy fact, if the reader should 
revise this part of the argument in favor of the 
divine origin of the Scriptures with no personal 
searchings of heart. Does he possess this religion ; 
a religion based on the knowledge of the truth, yet 
more than knowledge— a religion not irrespective 
of form, yet more than form : the religion of love, 
of reverence, of confidence, of joy in God through 
Jesus Christ, of repentance and self-abasement, of 
faith and obedience ? Does he possess this spiritual 

Bible not of Man. S 



170 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

religion, this growing religion, and though imperfect, 
this religion which is the fruit of God's Spirit, and 
which alone can qualify him to dwell within the 
courts of the New Jerusalem ? 

If he does, he may well say, " By the grace of 
God, I am what I am ;" if he does not, how can he 
be happy, how can he be at rest? Is the Bible 
fabulous? Are its truths fabulous? Are its hopes 
fabulous? Is its religion fabulous? Ah, no. There 
is nothing fabulous about this Book of God. God 
himself is no fable. It is no fable that men have 
incurred his displeasure. The eternity to which; 
they are bound is no fable. Heaven and hell are no 
fables. 



ITS UNITY. 171 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE UNITY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

The argument to which the reader's attention is 
now directed, is the agreement or concord of Scrip- 
ture with itself, or the consent of all its parts. 

It may at the outset be questioned, whether the 
fact that a book is consistent with itself, be a proof 
of its divine original? The question is not out of 
place ; it is a fair question. While it is true that 
writers whose works are voluminous, who have 
written largely on various subjects, or on different 
departments of the same subject, and more especially 
if their works have employed a long series of years, 
and been published at long intervals, are very apt to 
slide into some incoherencies, if not some downright 
and palpable contradictions ; yet must it be conced- 
ed, that there are human authors who are uniformly 
and always consistent with themselves. The mere 
circumstance, therefore, that the Bible is consistent 
J with itself, is a slender basis on which to found an 
I argument for its divine original, if we at the same 
i time take not into consideration the nature of this 
\ consistency, and the circumstances which render it, 
I not to say improbable, but impossible, unless the 
writers of it were directed by more than human wis- 
1 • 



172 THE BIBLE NOT OF IMAN. 

dom. Our design is to show that there exists this 
agreement of the Scripture with itself; that there is 
something in the nature of this agreement, which 
makes it such a moral phenomenon, that it never 
could have taken place in the history of uninspired 
men; that the circumstances of it are such as to 
justify and demand the conclusion, that it is an ex- 
pression of His mind and will, ^^ with whom is no 
variableness, neither shadow of turning." 

We will direct our thoughts to the Reality 
AND Nature or this Agreement, as it appears in 
the facts that are narrated in the Bible ; in the 
representations there made of religious truth ; in the 
harmony which exists between the principles which 
it reveals, the emotions it inculcates, and the out- 
ward conduct which flows from them ; and in the 
unity between the Old and New Testaments. 

1. As the basis of our argument we affirm, in 
the first place, that there is a remarkable agreement 
in the facts that are narrated in the Scriptures. The 
arguments of infidels against the Bible as a divine 
revelation, almost, if not always, relate to matters 
of fact stated in the sacred volume. The reasons 
for this probably are, that the facts therein stated 
are so numerous, that it would require the life of the 
most diligent student to investigate them minutely ; 
and that apparent discrepancies in little matters, 
which time and patient research easily reconcile, 
embolden the infidel in a temporary triumph. 

It were impossible, in a single chapter, to do 
more than make it appear that the Scriptures are 



ITS UNITY. 173 

consistent with themselves in the great facts which 
lie at the basis of the religion which they reveal ; 
which have an inseparable connection with all its 
peculiar doctrines, an influence upon all its precepts, 
and which give Christianity its distinguishing char- 
acter and importance. There are such facts. They 
are, the creation of the world — the descent of the 
human family from one common pair — the universal 
deluge — the division of the earth among the sons of 
Noah — the confusion of tongues — the calling of 
Abraham and the origin of the Hebrew state — the 
destruction of Sodom and the cities of the plain — 
the severance of the race of Ishmael from their 
common progenitor— the bondage and deliverance 
of the children of Israel in Egypt— the giving of the 
moral and ceremonial law on Sinai — the pilgrimage 
through the wilderness — the possession of the prom- 
ised land — the character of the Jews under the dy- 
nasty of the judges and the reign of the kings — the 
service of the temple — the revolt of the ten tribes — 
the exile and the return from Babylon — the nation and 
the family from which the Messiah descended — his 
miraculous birth, his peculiar character, his preach- 
ing, his propitiatory suff*erings and death, his burial 
and his resurrection — ^his commission to his apostles 
to preach the Gospel — ^his ascension into heaven — 
the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pente- 
cost, and the organization of the Christian church. 

If there is a perfect agreement in the sacred 
writers in their statement of these great facts, then, 
so far as this statement goes, there is no discrepancy 



174 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

in the great system of which these facts form the 
basis. In things of minor moment, there may be 
seeming discrepancy in the different narrators ; but 
it is discrepancy which disappears on a more minute 
examination ; and even though it does not at once 
disappear, ought, upon all principles of fair reason- 
ing, to be attributed to other causes than the mistake 
of the original narrator. 

Of these great facts the sacred writers furni&h a 
perfectly harmonious account. The earliest of them 
wrote subsequently to some of these events ; some 
of them wrote subsequently to them all ; while 
most of those who wrote subsequently to all, or a 
part of them, make frequent and explicit reference 
to the whole. Whether their statements be more 
or less full, or their references more or less inci- 
dental, there is no positive discrepancy in any of 
them. It would require a volume to illustrate these 
remarks : we must rely on the reader's acquamtance 
with the Scriptures for their illustration. Any man 
familiar with the Sacred Writings, will see the force 
of this argument. 

The statement of David, for example, is in har- 
mony with that of Moses ; the narrative of Peter, 
and Stephen, and the allusions of Paul, do not con- 
tradict the narrative of any of the narrators who 
preceded them. David celebrates in poetry, what 
Moses records as a historian ; while Stephen, and 
Peter, and Paul, urge in argument the same facts 
that are recorded by the historian's pen and sung by 
the prophet's lyre. The historical parts of the New 



ITS UNITY. 175 

Testament, as well as the Old, are in perfect coinci- 
dence with the more didactic and doctrinal parts. 
The epistles of Paul, so full of minute specifica- 
'tions, so replete with allusions to times, places, per- 
sons, and events ; and written with all the freedom 
of epistolary correspondence, and without any re- 
gard to the order of events ; are found to discover a 
minute coincidence with the more extended and 
exact history given by Luke in the book of the 
^^ Acts of the Apostles." 

The statements of the four evangelists, though 
at a great remove from studied uniformity, are, in 
regard to the great facts on which Christianity is 
founded, perfectly harmonious statements. The 
apparent inconsistencies vanish on close inspection, 
and the harmony becomes more obvious and strik- 
ing from the very apparent discrepancies, because 
they show the entire absence of all collusion. There 
is a difference in their narratives, but they differ 
without being contradictory. One gives a more full 
statement than another ; one writes in chronological 
order, another inweaves facts as they suit his pur- 
pose, and without regard to date ; one writes to a 
different people, and with a different object from 
another, and therefore presents the facts with a dif- 
ferent phase and complexion ; one traces the gene- 
alogy of the Saviour through the line of Mary, and 
another through the line of Joseph ; one specifies a 
distant ancestor by one name, and another by an- 
other ; and on inquiry, it is ascertained that he was 
identified with both. 



176 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

In some of the genealogical tables there is an 
apparent discrepancyj arising from the fact, that one 
writer records the genealogy according to the He- ^ 
brew usage, reckoning the descendants by the males * 
only ; while another, not regarding this genealogical 
precision, includes both the male and the female 
descendants. The most serious discrepancies relate 
to numbers; in regard to which, it would be mar- 
vellous if none, of all the transcribers, had fallen 
into any error. The alleged contradictions, on 
which infidelity so triumphantly relies, are almost 
all of this character. But critical investigation, 
and faithful research, have again and again refuted 
them. 

The original manuscripts in which the sacred 
Books were written, have all long since crumbled 
away, or been destroyed ; and for a long series of 
years, and until the invention of the art of printing, 
were handed down from generation to generation, 
by the tedious process of transcribing with the pen. 
Even the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament 
now in existence, were made many centuries after 
the loss of the originals. Amid the ten thousand 
copies, from the days of Moses to the present day, 
it is matter for grateful admiration, that we now 
possess, in the original languages in which they 
were written, the substantial Scriptures, as they 
were dictated by Infinite wisdom. Proof readers, 
and those who are in the habit of correcting the 
press, cannot fail to feel the relevancy and import- 
ance of these observations. 



ITS UNITY. 1 77 

God has provided for the preservation of the 
unadulterated Scriptures, by having thus preserved 
them in the original languages in which they were 
written. Living language is continually fluctuating : 
dead languages are unchangeable. We cannot suf- 
ficiently adore the superintending and vigilant care 
of Divine Providence, in that these writings have 
been preserved in these languages, and preserved 
pure. Some transcribers may have given a different 
spelling to some words from that which is given by 
others ; some may have misplaced a stop, or inverted 
a letter, or even misplaced a sentence ; yet is it still 
the same unadulterated history. 

Some things may remain obscure ; but the ob- 
scure, so far as they are understood, never contradict 
those that are plain ; while those that are plain shed 
light upon those that are obscure. Infidels have not, 
so far as my knowledge extends, ever undertaken to 
vitiate the great facts contained in the Scripture nar- 
rative. They are too firmly established by impartial 
and credible witnesses, and too abundantly confirmed 
by profane history, to be assailed. The most Avhich 
they have attempted to do, is to charge upon the nar- 
rators some minor inconsistencies, which in no way 
affect the essential harmony of their narrative ; and 
which, if even unexplained, leave the great fabric 
of God's truth firm and unimpaired. We have 
nothing to fear, when they have done their worst ; 
and when/^ after the assault, we count those of its 
towers that have stood the siege, we shall find that 
not a tower has fallen." 

EiMe not of Mau. g# 



178 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

2. There is also, in the Scriptures, the most 
perfect unity in all their representations of religious 
truth. 

It is allowed by infidels, that there is a stronger 
apparent harmony between the doctrines of Scrip- 
ture than the facts. If they do not allow this, we 
prove it upon them by repeating a remark already 
made; which is, that their own objections relate, 
rather to the matters of fact that are stated in the 
Bible, than to the doctrines it reveals. But this is 
perfectly the reverse in regard to all human systems. 
In human systems, the diversity of opinion is much 
greater than the diversity of facts; the moral disa- 
greement is much greater than the physical, or the 
historical. 

On the subject of religious truth men differ, and 
ever have differed. No two men in the world, even 
with the Bible in their hands, could probably now 
be found, who would write a book on religious sub- 
jects as large as the Bible, without expressing differ-, 
ent views. Much less could thirty or forty men be 
found who would perfectly harmonize. Suppose the 
Bible to be blotted out of existence, and some thirty 
or forty individuals, scattered through different ages 
of the world, had written on religious subjects, and 
their works were comprised in a volume. Who does 
not see, that such a work would have been the 
merest theological jargon ! Let the wild and inco- 
herent speculations of heathen philosophy, and the 
thousand varieties of pagan religion, give the answer 
to this demand. 



ITS UNITY. 179 

But while these difFerences are in fact almost 
endless, yet it is the great and undeniable character- 
istic of the Scriptures, that all their instructions are 
in perfect harmony. Their great object is to impart 
the knowledge of truth. Truth is the great and 
only instrumentality they make use of in order to 
transform, purify, and elevate the human character. 
No matter how they teach — whether by history, 
biography, song, allegory, parable,, argument, or dog- 
matic testimony and affirmation — religious truth is 
so deeply and thoroughly inwoven in all they utter, 
that it forms the great and essential element in all 
their instructions. Yet in all their views, from be- 
ginning to end, there is the most perfect oneness. 
No matter what the subject of which they treat, all 
the writers speak the same thing. They uniformly 
present the same views. We might specify a chap- 
ter of doctrines, even to a minute and detailed 
confession of faith, and we should find the sama 
unbroken harmony. 

The most difficult of all subjects, the one most 
inaccessible to the minds of men, and the one on 
which, of all others, the pagan world held notions 
the most obscure and contradictory, relates to the 
Divine Being and character. ^' What,'' said the King 
of Syracuse to Simonides — ^^ what is God ?" The 
poet desired a day to consider the question; on the 
morrow, he requested two days ; and as often as he 
was called upon for an answer, he doubled the 
time. And when the king demanded the reason of 
his conduct, ^' It is," replied Simonides, '' because 



180 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

the more I consider the question, the more obscure 
it appears." Yet this is human — it is enlightened 
humanity. 

The Scriptures never hesitate, never vary when 
they speak of the infinite and eternal Deity. They 
utter no dark enigmas ; they veil nothing which to 
creatures can be unveiled ; they discourage by no 
unmingled severities, and flatter by no unmingled 
mercy ; they always and everywhere speak with the 
same explicitness — they change never. So too of 
the character of man, and the discovery they make 
of the way of man's salvation. They everywhere 
speak of man as fallen by his iniquity; of one 
Saviour ; one way of going to him, one way only 
in which this salvation becomes ours. Ten thou- 
sand are the fancies of other religions, and all as con- 
tradictory to one another and themselves, as they 
are conjectural and false. The sacred writers all 
point to the one God-man Mediator — the one Root 
and Ofi*spring of David — the same Fountain of 
mercy — the same Tree of Life. They uniformly 
speak the same thing : let their theme be what it will, 
the teaching of one is the teaching of all. 

And not only do they all speak the same doc- 
trine, but the various doctrines they inculcate all 
agree with each other. They have a mutual de- 
pendence and connection ; they give one another a 
reciprocal support and influence ; they grow out of 
each other, and all hang together, alike deriving their 
ripeness, and freshness, and flavor, from the same 
parent stock. Let a diligent student take up a copy 



ITS UNITY. 181 

of the Scriptures with copious marginal references, 
and undertake to collate their instructions upon any- 
one doctrine or moral duty, and he will be surprised 
at the uniformity of their teaching. They never 
speak for, and against, the same doctrine ; they never 
bear witness on both sides of any question : nor is 
there an instance in which they af&rm and deny the 
same thing. That which in reality ^^ has any Scrip- 
ture in its favor, has all Scripture in its favor;" nor 
is there anything in the Bible against it. 

Now we maintain that this is a remarkable fact. 
It is not an easy matter for a false witness, especially 
if he has a long story to tell, to agree with himself; 
much less will a number of false witnesses, testifying 
at great length on so many subjects, agree with one 
another. This were, if possible, a greater miracle 
than that of divine inspiration. Is this harmony 
then the result of mere human wisdom, honestly 
directed ? Is it the effect of fiction or falsehood ? 
This is more than any sober man can be persuaded 
to believe. It is contrary to all experience and ob- 
servation. The human mind is too weak, thus to 
have settled down upon such a vast amount of un- 
changing truth ; it is itself too restless and changing : 
nor is the instance to be found in the history of our 
race, in which its views of religious truth possessed 
such comprehensiveness, consistency, and perma- 
nence. We cannot account for this harmony of 
truth which the sacred Books express, upon any 
other principle, than that its authors were under 
the guidance of heavenly wisdom. The thing is 



182 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

impossible : the supposed cause, that uninspired men 
were its authors, is not adequate to the effect pro- 
duced. 

3. Turn, now, to the harmony which exists be- 
tween the principles which the Bible reveals and the 
inward emotions it inculcates^ and the harmony he- 
tiDeen these inward emotions and the outward conduct 
which flows from them. True religion consists of 
doctrine, experience and practice; while in all these 
respects, it exhibits the most perfect symmetry. 
There is no inconsistency between its practice and 
its affections, nor between its affections and its prin- 
ciples. They are all conformed and fitted the one 
to the other, and form a religion in which the under- 
standing, the heart, and the outward deportment 
agree. Its religion is like an edifice made up of dif- 
ferent parts, but all so perfectly congruous and joined 
together, that it possesses unequalled strength and 
beauty. The tendency of its truths is not to de- 
stroy, or neutralize, but to excite and sustain that 
internal state of mind, and those glowing, heavenly 
affections which it requires ; and the tendency of 
this internal state of mind, so far from being at war 
with the external character and conduct which it 
requires, is the only thing that effectually secures it. 
The love of Christian truth is never found in minds 
that are not imbued with Christian truth itself j 
while the practice of it is never found where it is 
not believed and loved. The truths of the Bible, 
the love of it, and its controlling power over the 
life — these three things, constitute the Christian 



ITS UNITY. 183 

character. Where these three things exist, there 
is the root, the branches, the fruit — the tree in full 
bearing. An honest belief in the great truths of 
Christianity lies at the basis of all holy affections ; 
and holy affections, just in the measure in which 
they exist in the soul, produce holy obedience. 

A man's affections may be inconsistent with the 
truths which he believes, because it is the cold and 
reluctant assent which he accords to mere specula- 
tive propositions. So may his life be inconsistent 
with the principles which he professes to love ; but 
it cannot be inconsistent with the principles which 
for the time being he truly loves : it may be at war 
with the principles that are on his lips, but it cannot 
be at war with the principles that are in his heart. 
The religion of the Bible, therefore, is throughout 
consistent with itself It is like sweet music, made 
up of harmonious parts — like the music of heaven, 
where, though there are ten thousand voices, each 
voice is not only perfectly melodious in itself, but 
all the voices are blended in perfect and delightful 
harmony, without a jarring note, or the faintest dis- 
cord. 

It is not necessary to our argument, that we 
should prove that this religion is ever perfectly ex- 
emplified among men. It is enough if we can show 
that this is the religion of the Bible, and that it is 
exemplified among men, just in the degree in which 
men are imbued with the spirit which the Bible in- 
culcates. It has never been perfectly exemplified 
among men, save in a single instance ; and in that 



184 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

instance, the thoughts of holiness, the love of holi- 
ness, and the life of holiness, were expressive of a 
harmony of character that indicated its divine ori- 
gin. Believing the truth, loving the truth, and 
walking in the truth, constitute one religion. Every 
truth begets its peculiar grace, and every grace its 
peculiar virtue. With all the teachings of the Bible 
on the importance of just conceptions of the truth, 
it does not sever them from their appropriate affec- 
tions ; and with all its teachings on the importance 
of godliness within, it never severs them from the 
godliness that is without. From the views it re- 
veals of God, it deduces the affections we owe to 
him ; from the affections we owe to him, it deduces 
the duties we owe. Prayer and praise, the study of 
the Scriptures, the worship of the sanctuary, the 
sanctification of the Lord's day, and the profession 
of his name before men, and the consecration of 
time, property and influence to his service, are but 
the fruits of a true and honest loyalty to him as our 
sovereign Lord and gracious Redeemer. Prom the 
views it reveals of man and the relations men sus- 
tain to one another, it deduces the affections we owe 
to our fellow men ; and from the affections we owe 
to them, it deduces the correlative duties. Truth, 
integrity, kindness, purity ; respect to our superiors, 
and submission to those who rule over us ; conde- 
scension to our inferiors, and doing good to all men 
as we have opportunity — these, and other relative 
duties, it ingrafts on the parent stock of the same 
faith and charity. In this respect, everything in 



ITS UNITY. 185 

the Bible is perfectly harmonious. And is not this 
harmony among the indices of its divine origin ? 
Do false religions ever teach thus ? Have they ever 
thus taught? Did ever such a religion originate 
with weakj fallible, sinful men ? 

4. In the last place, let us advert to the harmony 
which exists between the Scriptures of the Old and 
New Testaiyients. Four hundred years elapsed be- 
tween the last prophet of the Old, and the first pro- 
phet of the New dispensation. The Old Testament 
was published to the world long before the New ; 
and in this, as well as some other particulars, they 
form two distinct volumes, while they profess to be 
only two distinct series of revelations from the same 
Divine Author. Infidels have not been wanting in 
strenuous effort to prove that they are contradictory 
revelations ; that the one condemns what the other 
justifies ; that the former is abrogated by the latter, 
and that therefore both cannot be from God. There 
is great ignorance, or great disingenuousness in these 
assertions, and there may be both. A little reflec- 
tion will show, that the Jewish revelation is con- 
firmed by the Christian, and the Christian by the 
Jewish ; and that there is the most perfect concord 
between them both. 

It is no objection to the divine origin of the 
Scriptures, that God did not reveal them to men all 
at once. It is not pretended that the Old Testa- 
ment contains a complete and perfect revelation. 
The expansion or amplification of a principle is not 
to be brought as an objection to the principle itself 



186 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

All the books in the world are but little more than 
illustrations ; and the most that we can say of them 
is, that they furnish us with greater advantages for 
applying what was at first written. The work of 
God's revelation was a progressive work; nor is 
there any more objection to it, on that account, 
than to the progressive works of creation and prov- 
idence. God's revelation had its infancy, its youth, 
its manhood ; and where is the objection to its 
being born not in all the maturity of its perfected 
manhood ? 

Nor is it an objection to the harmony of which 
we speak, that parts of the Old are abrogated by the 
New. It would be an objection, if the abrogated 
parts of the Old Testament had been originally 
revealed a§ a permanent rule of faith and duty. But 
they disclaim this high prerogative ; they themselves 
profess to be only a temporary rule, a local rule, that 
was designed to be superseded by a more perfect and 
permanent economy. The ceremonial and civil 
code of the Jewish nation was of such a kind that it 
could be abrogated, without contravening any one 
of the great principles of truth and rectitude of which 
the Bible, as an entire revelation, is the only infalli- 
ble standard. It was made up, not of moral laws, but 
of positive institutions which partook not of a moral 
nature, nor had they any other binding force except 
that they were commanded. They carried within 
themselves the seeds of their own dissolution — seeds 
planted by the hand of God. They were instituted 
for a particular nation, for a limited time, and for a 



ITS UNITY. 187 

specified purpose ; and the prediction that they should 
cease was uttered by God's own voice. 

It is one of the proofs of their divine origin, and 
of their harmony with the other parts of Divine Rev- 
elation, that when that time had expired, and that 
purpose was attained, and that nation passed from 
under the sceptre of their theocracy, all that was 
peculiar in the Jewish dispensation was merged in 
the common Christianity. It is one thing for Chris- 
tianity to supersede Judaism, another for Judaism to 
contradict Christianity ; one thing for the New Tes- 
tament to be inconsistent with the Old, and another 
for the Old, through a long succession of ages, to 
prepare the way for the New. And this is precisely 
the relation which the two Testaments sustain to 
one another. In all its arrangements the Old is 
ever looking towards the New economy, and these 
arrangements are completed only by that which is 
to come. The Old is preliminary to the New, and 
the New the accomplishment of the Old. And is 
not this evidence of harmony, rather than the want 
of it? 

Still further : There are several features of the 
Old Testament which are carried into the New, and 
which show that they constitute but different parts 
of one system. The moral code of the Old Testa- 
ment is the moral code of Christianity ; the truth of 
the Old Testament is the truth of the New. The 
infidel may be challenged to specify a single moral 
law, or one principle of truth contained in the wri- 
tings of Moses and the prophets, which is not recog- 



188 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

nized and honored by having a place in the teach- 
ings of Christ and the apostles. 

Every attentive reader of the Bible cannot but 
have remarked, that to a very great extent, the New 
Testament does but little more than inculcate with 
greater explicitness, and amplify the instructions of 
Moses and the prophets. Nor are they these great 
moral features of the Old Testament simply, that 
appear in all their prominence and brightness in 
the New ; but not a few of the features even of its 
ceremonial institutions, stand out in their true im- 
port only in the Christian revelation. The thought 
is too familiar to almost every mind to need dwelling 
upon, that the most emphatic institutions of that 
economy relate to the distinguished Personage who 
is the grand subject of the Christian revelation, and 
centre in his person and work. Not only were the 
sacrifices and oblations prefigurative of the great 
oblation offered on Calvary, and not only did they 
derive all their importance from this their typical 
import ; but all the prophecies of the Old Testament 
are of the same character, and have the person and 
work of Christ for their common object. They form 
a system of prophecies with this one object in view. 
The harmony and unity of their design are not only 
peculiar, and different from all the pretended predic- 
tions of pagan oracles, but are in this respect strongly 
marked, and truly wonderful. '^ It shall bruise thy 
head, thou shalt bruise his heel :" here this wonder- 
ful system of predictions began. It ran on in one 
ridge of time, and in one line of the generations of 



ITS UNITY. 189 

Adam, till it reached the Jewish nation ; and never 
swerved from its object, nor ran out of the line of 
that people, until the last of the seers uttered his 
memorable predictions, about four hundred years 
before the coming of Christ ; and John, his more 
proximate harbinger, exclaimed, '^ Behold the Lamb 
of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!" It 
began with Christ ; and with Christ it terminated. 
Every intermediate prophecy, for almost four thou- 
sand years, whether made to Noah, or to Abraham ; 
to Isaiah, or Malachi ; whether it concerned the ante- 
diluvian world, or the nations of Canaan ; or the 
Jews, or the Egyptians, or Nineveh, or Babylon, or 
Persia, Greece or Rome ; concentrated in the gradual 
and prospective developement of the Divine purpose 
in regard to one great event and object— the coming 
of Jesus in the flesh, and the establishment of his 
kingdom in the earth. Whatever other ends may 
have been incidentally subserved by this series of 
prophecies, this is the great end for which the Scrip- 
tures of the New Testament inform us this long- 
continued intercourse between Heaven and earth 
was maintained. 

Now we say that in all these respects, and if in 
all these, in all others, there is wonderful harmony 
between the Old and New Testaments. The Old 
predicts the New, and the New appeals to the Old. 
Here is a system of instructions, of sacrifices, of pre- 
dictions, all of prodigious extent, commencing with 
the fall of man and reaching to the death of Christ, 
all telling the same story, fraught with the same 



190 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

thoughts, disclosing the same marvellous purpose — a 
system made up of thousands of parts, and pervad- 
ing forty centuries ; yet everything about it is of a 
piece, and astonishingly great as it is, all perfectly 
harmonious. Whence is it ? Whence was it ? Who 
was it that bound these two dispensations together, 
and made them one system ? Who bound the pre- 
diction in Eden concerning ^' The Seed of the 
woman," with Malachi's prediction of ^^ The Desire 
of all nations ?" Who associated the blood of 
AbePs sacrifice with the great oblation that ^' speak- 
eth better things than the blood of Abel ?" Who 
made the faith of Abraham under the Old dispensa- 
tion, the example and pattern of later saints under 
the New ? Who made these two dispensations thus 
speak the same thing ? Who thus impregnated the 
Old with the New, and made the New the expansion 
and developement of the Old? Is it not strange 
blindness, that can overlook the mind and hand of 
God in this accordancy ? Impostors might here and 
there have lighted on a single prefiguration, an iso- 
lated service, a lone and solitary prediction ; but never 
on such a long-continued, complete, and harmonious 
system — for the obvious reasons, that no impostor 
would have thought of it, and that if he had thought 
of it, the coincidences are beyond his power. 

We look upon this wonderful system, now that 
it is revealed to us, as one of the simplest things in 
the world ; just as we do upon the laws of nature, to 
which no being could give birth but the God of 
nature. The more the one part is studied, and 



ITS UNITY. 191 

understood, the more light does it throw upon the 
other. If one is false, both are false ; and both are 
true, if one is true. They lap on to one another, and 
show the style of the wise Master Builder. There 
is no collision between them. They are '' the two 
witnesses of heaven;'' and instead of ^'emitting 
such cross lights as are fitted to bewilder the eye of 
the observer, they are the two candlesticks which 
man hath not planted, but which stand before the 
God of the whole earth." Nothing is more prepos- 
terous than to suppose that this harmony, involving 
as it does so many things, extending as it does over so 
many ages, embracing as it does such a vast variety 
off means all tending to the same end and so many 
causes all producing the same result, is the creature 
of human wisdom. Pre-concert in such an arrange- 
ment was impossible. Nor is it any accidental, 
or fabulous coincidence. The hand of God is in 
it : there is no accounting for it, unless ^' holy men 
wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 

Such is the reality and nature of the agreement 
or concord of the Scriptures with themselves. In all 
their accession of parts, and in all the progress of their 
augmented revelations, they may have been perpet- 
ually acquiring new excellencies; but they never 
depart from their uniform character. They disclose 
new truths, but there is no change of truths once 
disclosed ; new views, but they are not altered 
views. They consist of more than threescore dis- 
tinct treatises, composed by more than thirty differ- 
ent writers, most of whom were unknown to each 



192 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

otheij separated by their places of residence, living m 
different periods and ages of the world, and were all 
scattered through a period of not less than sixteen 
hundred years. They were men greatly differing in 
natural endowments ; in age, education, and learn- 
ing ; in their passions and prejudices, and in the 
stations they held in society. Some of them were 
rich, and some of them were poor ; some of them 
were legislators and kings, and some of them were 
shepherds, fishermen, and taxgatherers. They wrote 
also upon the most interesting of all subjects, the 
great subject of religion and morals : the subject on 
which the human mind is acutely sensitive — the 
subject, in relation to which the stormy passions of 
men hold them in perpetual agitation, and their 
ungoverned fancy keeps them in wide and wild 
extremes — the subject on which human tradition, 
and human laws, and the maxims and habits of men, 
and the state of society, and caste and classification, 
are almost endlessly diversified ; and on which, for 
centuries, nothing was written save what is written 
in the Bible ; and for other centuries, though much 
was written, little was accessible to the mass of 
mankind, or that had the confidence of those to 
whom it was accessible. 

The inviolable uniformity, therefore, pervading 
the Scriptures, is a fact of no doubtful authority in 
demonstrating their divine origin. No one impostor 
could have written thus ; and no body of impostors, 
scattered through so many centuries, could have 
thus agreed with one another. Had such been the 



ITS LTNITY. 193 

origin of these books, they would have varied with 
the wisdom, or the folly, or the caprice of their au- 
thors ; they would have changed with every passing 
age and every revolution of laws and manners, and 
received their peculiar coloring from the class of so- 
ciety from which their respective authors were taken. 
So that it is utterly impossible they could have been 
written without the superintendence of a Divine 
power. 

Such is the argument for the divine origin of the 
Scriptures from their perfect harmony and agreement. 

There is but one objection to it which we feel 
called upon to answer. The infidel demands, '^ If 
the Bible is thus harmonious, whence is it that there 
is so much discordancy among those who profess to 
make it the only standard of their faith and practice ? 
If the Bible is one, if there is an honest faith in it, 
whence this discrepancy ?" We acknowledge the 
force of the objection, so far as it regards men ; but 
we do not perceive its stringency as it regards the 
Bible. We say, let God be true, though every man 
be a liar. As to the discordances among men, we 
cannot open our mouth. It is as true in moral, as 
in mathematical science, ^^that two things which 
are equal to another and the same thing, are them- 
selves equal." Human systems which agree with 
the Bible, agree with each other. The Bible is 
right, but men are wrong ; they are sincerely wrongs 
because they are sincere in their differences. In 
requiring men to adopt the Bible as their standard, 
its Author requires them not to disagree among 

Biblenot of Man. 9 



194 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

themselves. Men alone are chargeable with the sin 
of putting this objection into the mouth of infidelity, 
and of bringing this reproach upon the word of God. 
It is a mournful, but undeniable truth, that the 
church of God has apostatized from her primeval 
unity. Time was when '' the multitude of believers 
were of one heart and one soul." But these days 
have passed away ; and infidelity has for ages tri- 
umphed in a divided church. There is great sin in 
these discordancies ; nor is it the less because they I 
may, peradventure, have become venerable for their 
age ; nor because the guilt of them has been so long 
in contracting, and they have become so closely 
inwoven, and so deeply imbedded in the habits of 
human thought. We may not depart from the great 
and obvious principle, that what the Bible teaches, no 
man, and no set of men, has a right to disbelieve ; nor 
can we resist the irrefragable conclusion, that where 
this beautifully harmonious system of truth is received, 
men themselves Avill be as harmonious as the Bible. 
But while we give utterance to thoughts like 
these, we would not have infidels unmindful of the 
fact, that there is much more extended, substantial 
agreement in all true Christians than their objection 
implies. There is such a thing as the ^^ communion 
of saints," and essential harmony, with unessential 
difi*erences. Already are there significant move- 
ments in the church of God pointing towai'ds greatei 
harmony of views and affection. It will be indeed 
a new era, when such a day is fully ushered in — a 
dawning, such as has not brightened our spiritual 



ITS UNITY. 195 

horizon since the early dawn of the Sun of right- 
eousness, when he rose with ^^ healing in his beams." 
It will be a waxing, and not a Avaning light. " The 
light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, 
and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the 
light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth 
up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke 
of their wound." His church will put on her gar- 
ments of strength and salvation ; her adornment will 
be the simplicity of truth and the beauty of holiness : 
and she will look forth fair as the moon, clear as the 
sun, and terrible as a bannered army. It will be 
eminently the Lord's work, and marvellous in the 
eyes of them who behold it. It will require so much 
free and unembarrassed interchange of thought; so 
much candor and fairness ; so much that is amiable 
and conciliating ; so much humility and prayer ; such 
a strong and practical acknowledgment of God's 
word as the only infallible standard ; such oblivion 
of men, and such a remembrance of the great God ; 
that his own condescending goodness and mercy 
will be most visibly honored in effecting it. This 
was the prophet's hope when he said, ^^ Thy watch- 
men shall lift up the voice, with the voice together 
shall they sing ; for they shall see eye to eye, when 
the Lord shall bring again Zion." This was the 
Saviour's prayer, in view of the wants and woes of 
a ruined world and a scoffing age : ^^ I pray that 
they all may be one ; as thou. Father, art in me, and 
I in thee, that they may be one in us : that the world 
may believe that thou hast sent me !" 



196 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 



CHAPTER YII. 



ADAPTATION OF THE SCRIPTURES TO THE CHARAC- 
TER AND WANTS OF MAN. 

Not a little has been written on the subject of 
Natural Theology, to prove the being of God from 
the adaptation of external nature to the intellectual 
and moral constitution of man. In a short digres- 
sion from his main object, in one of the Bridge water 
Treatises upon this topic, the Reverend Dr. Chal- 
mers makes the following observations. ^^ If in the 
system of external nature, we can recognize the 
evidence of God being its Author in the adaptation, 
wherewith it teems, to the moral and intellectual 
constitution of man, there is room and opportunity 
for this very evidence in the book of an external 
revelation. What appears in the construction of a 
world might be made to appear as manifestly in the 
construction of a volume, whose objective truth may 
present as obvious and skilful an accommodation to 
our mental economy as do the objective things of a 
created universe. And it is not less favorable for au 
indication of its divine original, that whereas nature, 
as being the original system, abounds with those 
fitnesses which harmonize with the mental constitu- 
tion in a state of health: Christianity, as being a 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 197 

restorative system, abounds in fitnesses to the same 
constitution in a state of disease. Certain it is that 
the same wisdom, and goodness, and even power of 
a moral architect, may be as strikingly evinced in 
the reparation, as in the primeval establishment of a 
moral nature." 

It is to this class of credentials with which the 
Bible comes to us, that I propose to devote the pres- 
ent chapter. Man, in his primeval integrity, was a 
world of wonders. Endowed with exalted intellec- 
tual faculties, from the first moment of his existence 
he was obedient to the law of his being, and his 
Creator ; his moral excellence was unblotted, and his 
character sinless. As a consequence of this, he was 
happy. Above, without, within, there was nothing 
to interrupt his fellowship with his Maker, nothing 
to poison the fountains of his joy. To us this pic- 
ture seems almost like fable, because in all the sub- 
sequent history of our race, there is not another such 
example of innocence and loveliness ; not one bright 
and refreshing spot on which the eye can rest. In 
his fallen state, he is a complication of wonders ; a 
complication of intellectual and moral ailments, that 
are at war with one another and with God. Origi- 
nally the elements of his being all vitally united, 
and all, with their separate functions, were in due 
subordination and subserviency. Melancholy as the 
fact is, sin has disturbed and confounded this har- 
mony ; it has to such an extent deranged man's in- 
tellectual and moral system, that he has lost sight of 
the great end of his existence ; and remaining as he 



198 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

is, is unhappy, lives to no good purpose, and dies 
in despair. 

A system of philosophy, or religion, that can 
successfully address itself to his entire being in all 
its states of moral degradation and reform, in all 
their varieties, in all the unnumbered individuals of 
the race, in every age and clime, must be a nicely 
adjusted system. Its parts must be wonderfully^ 
arranged and put together so as to meet one another, 
and so that its many movements and influences may 
all tend to one and the most desirable result. We 
affirm, that just such a system is revealed in the 
Bible ; and we proceed to trace this adaptation. 

1. We look at man, in the first place, as an m^ 
dividual existence. One of his noblest powers is his 
intelligence. He is the creature of thought ; and 
this thinking existence within him must have a 
religion that satisfies it. If the understanding does 
not go along with it, or if it keep his mind in 
the bandages of infancy and impose manacles upon 
thought, it is no religion for a creature of intelli- 
gence. Or if it be a religion that makes heavy ex- 
actions upon his credulity, and does not enforce its 
claims by solid argument, it is no religion for a 
creature of intelligence. The Bible reveals no such 
dubious theories; but on the other hand, just the 
truths in which the human mind, in all the stages 
of its progress and advancement, feels the deepest 
interest ; and which, from their simplicity, their 
greatness and their certainty, are not only fitted to 
relieve from intellectual depression and disquietude. 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 199 

bul impart intense delight to every honest inquiry 
after truth. Here are tliose great objects of knowl- 
edge, those truths, which the mind so eagerly seeks 
after, and which men most need to know. 

It is not easy for us who have the Bible in our 
hands, to have any conception of the doubt, the 
absolute scepticism, and the consequent solicitude 
and distress on almost every subject of religious and 
moral inquiry, which would prevail but for the clear 
and authoritative decisions of this one Book. Every- 
thing would be thrown into the region of conjecture ; 
the human mind would be in a state of fermentation, 
and everywhere tossed upon the ocean of its own 
unsettled thoughts. If the inquiry were put to the 
mxOst intelligent and established Christian in the 
world. What would be his faith without the Bible ? 
he would feel constrained to reply, ^^ I do not know 
what it would be." It would be like dark chaos, or 
the ocean in a storm, where neither faith nor hope 
would have any anchorage ground to rest upon. 
This truthful record meets the wants of man as the 
creature of intelligence. It is the religion of light, 
of truth and certainty. It satisfies the mind when 
nothing else satisfies. No matter how depressed, or 
degraded the intelligence, the Bible elevates it ; no 
matter how elevated it is, the Bible is its guide and 
counsellor ; no matter how faint and weary, here it 
is led to the head and fountain of living waters. 

Man, too, is a moral being : he possesses a sense 
of moral obligation, and while he approves what is 
right, he condemns what is wrong in moral conduct. 



i. 



200 THE BIBLE JMOT OF MAN. 

Conscience has not a little to do with his religion 
although in defiance of himself she is a severe arbi- 
ter. Men who do not obey her dictates, know that 
they ought to obey them. She may not govern 
them, but she claims the right of governing them ; 
and though her supremacy may be disputed, resisted, 
and dethroned, yet she ^'ever holds the legitimate 
authority." She approves of rectitude ; but, unhap- 
pily, she sees very little to approve ; and the conse- 
quence is, she feels the outrage and the wrong. In 
default of the rectitude she demands, she has nothing 
left her but to utter her remonstrances, and inflict 
those terrible apprehensions, those fearful forebod- 
ings of the coming wrath, which agitate and torment 
the soul. Sometimes she exerts this, her only re- 
maining prerogative, with amazing power ; and so 
lashes the offender with her scorpion sting, that he 
feels within him the incipient gnawings of the 
worm that never dies. A religion that is adapted 
to man, must meet these demands of conscience. 
They cannot be resisted, nor set aside, nor connived 
at : it is not in man's nature thus to trifle with her 
claims. 

If we look to the history of the past, or if we 
look over the face of the world at the present hour, 
we see that the various religions of human devising 
fail to suggest the method by which these demands 
shall be obviated. Thousands and millions have 
tried them ; but, with one single exception, there is 
no religion that has ever been able to extract the 
fangs of this deadly serpent. No experiment ha« 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 201 

ever been tried more extensively, or more fully, or 
more fairly. Costly offerings have been laid on the 
shrine of idol gods, voluntary sufferings have been 
inflicted without number upon the defaulter, and 
living men have been immolated upon the altars of 
Moloch. Yet none of these religions ever gave, nor 
can they give the conscience peace. 

Yet may this deadly wound be healed. ^' There 
is balm in Gilead; there is a physician there." As 
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even 
so has the Son of Man been lifted up. Altogether 
remote from the ordinary apprehensions of mankind, 
and the most extraordinary of the Divine proceed- 
ings with regard to man, the cross of Christ effectu^ 
ally meets these demands, and imparts ^^ peace which 
passe th all understanding." This is what the religion 
of the Bible professes to accomplish ; and there is 
^^a great cloud of witnesses" that bear testimony to 
the redemption of this wondrous pledge. These are 
matters of fact ^ and no reasoning in the world can 
disprove them. This one religion there is, which in 
theory and practice, by observation and experience, 
proves itself a fitting and full relief for these terrible 
apprehensions. It is a remarkable fact in the history 
of our race, that no man ever believed in the Chris- 
tian Atonement without a pacified conscience. The 
remedy is adapted to the disease. Duly appreciated, 
that great sacrifice for sin acts as a charm upon the 
conscience, and assuages its agonies. It brings re- 
lief The aching head reposes upon it. It stanches 
the wounds of the lacerated and bleeding spirit, and 

DiHe not of Man. Q# 



202 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

relieves from apprehensions which make existence a 
burden, and immortality a curse. 

Men also have something more than intellect 
and consciencCj to which the Bible is adapted. 
Their mortal character is polluted and vile ; it is de- 
filed and loathsome ; far from God and the rectitude 
which he approves. It is unfruitful in righteous- 
ness, and fruitful only in sin — like a land bearing 
thorns and briers, whose end is to be burned. We 
need no revelation from Heaven to teach this affect- 
ing and melancholy lesson : it is not so much a 
lesson to be taught and learned, as a disgraceful and 
woeful picture to be surveyed, and one over which 
we might well shed a flood of tears. Yet is there 
no relief from the havoc sin has made, and no de- 
liverance from the power of sin, except from the 
Bible. The fact is one v/hich, if it had not been 
so often repeated, might well strike us with surprise, 
that however the mind of man may be improved by 
culture, refined by science, restrained by discipline, 
controlled by law, or elevated by those moralizing 
influences which false religions and human agency 
may supply, there is not an age, nor territory 
throughout this wide world, where these influences 
alone have made it better and holier. There is not 
an instance of exemption from this sweeping remark. 
Yet is this moral transformation the great want, the 
crying exigency of man. Other interests and claims 
are worthless and insignificant compared with this. 
If he must live and die the sinning, sinful, defiled 
and loathsome being that he is, better for him 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 203 

never to have had a being. The Bible is adapted 
to this pressing exigency. It reveals truths which 
are powerful to conviction and conversion ; it pos- 
sesses influences which quicken those who are dead 
in trespasses and sins ; it sends forth a spirit which 
breathes upon the dry bones, and flesh and sinews 
come upon them, and life enters into them, and they 
stand up upon their feet. What polluted man wants 
is to be washed from his uncleanness ; and here is 
the fountain where he may wash and be clean : 
what he wants is to be delivered from sin ; and here 
is the deliverer. He would have his mind no longer 
like the dry, barren, unyielding rock where no heav- 
enly grace flourishes ; but like the garden of God, 
where every grace strikes its roots deep, and unfolds 
its blossoms, and diff'uses its fragrance, and bears its 
fruit. And here is the influence that changes the 
heart of stone, and transforms its "'cold and rocky 
soil into a land of fertility and gladness. 

There is no need of illustrating the fact, that 
man too is the child of sorrow, A rational being 
must have consolation in trials. All the world over, 
the refuge of men in seasons of affliction is their 
religion : they may have other refuges, but their 
religion is their last resort. Many have been the 
professors of wisdom, and many the wise men that 
have lived where the Bible is not known, but there 
were no comforters. Philosophy tells us, when 
sickness invades our pillow, when pain agonizes, 
when friends die, when property is gone, and when, 
instead of influence and honor, we suffer only dis- 



204 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

honor and contempt; that there is no help for it, 
that these are evils all men must bear, and that it 
becomes us to bear them like men ! False religions, 
almost without exception, endeavor to alleviate one 
trial only by adding another ; and for the obvious 
reason that they have no consolation to give : they 
are not the religion man needs. 

The Bible does not indeed profess to reveal a 
religion that exempts from adversity ; it rather lays 
its account with afflictions : it tells men that they 
must expect to suffer. Nor is there anything, in any 
of its truths, that is designed to blunt the acuteness 
of natural feeling. Yet has it consolations for the 
hour of trial, and such as bear the test of the hottest 
furnace. Of the Author of our trials, it declares, 
that he ^^doth not willingly afflict, nor grieve the 
children of men ;" that ^^ as a father pitieth his 
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.'' 
It tells of a "Great High Priest, who is touched 
with the feeling of our infirmities ;" who " knoweth 
our frame, and remembereth that we are dust ;" and 
who " stayeth his rough wind, in the day of his east 
wind." It teaches the children of sorrow to say, 
" God is our refuge and strength, a very present help 
in trouble," while their own response to its teachings 
is, " Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the God of all comfort, who com- 
forteth us in all our tribulation !" And while it 
teaches men these things, it tells them too, that 
however severe and heavy their trials may be, they 
are " but for a season," for " a little moment," and 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 205 

shall '^Avork for them a far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory." It tells them of the ^^ trial 
of faith," that is '^much more precious than that of 
gold tried in the fire ;" that it redounds to ^^ praise, 
honor, and glory ;" so that in the retrospect of their 
severest trials, they can say, ^' Happy is the man 
that God correcteth!" As with the serenity of an 
angePs countenance, it tells them, that although 
they have fiery trials to pass through, yet have they 
an ^^ inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away." That terrible state of mind, 
suspense under apprehended and foreboding evils, 
finds its antidote only in the Bible. Where, in all 
the records of earth, is there a sentence like this : 
'^ Casting all your care upon the Lord, for he careth 
for you;" or like this: ^^ Be careful for nothing; 
but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with 
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto 
God. And the peace of God, which passeth all 
understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds 
through Christ Jesus." O, trials are freed from their 
bitterness, darkness of its horrors, and fear of its 
apprehensions, by the whispers of this gentle voice ! 
The influence which a sensitive creature like man 
requires, is that also which shall give his emotions a 
right and happy direction. The Academic philoso- 
phers erred with the Stoics; the one in trying to 
eradicate the emotions and affections of men, the other 
in making human happiness consist in unrestrained 
indulgence. If his Creator be wise and good, his 
government over him is such, as to give that direc- 



206 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

tion to his ardent affections that shall be most 
accordant with his intellectual, moral, and immortal 
existence. His affections wisely directed and in- 
dulged, constitute the loveliness, the glory of his 
nature. More than anything else, they constitute 
the man himself, and make him what he is. If 
misdirected, they make him a degraded, vicious, 
miserable being ; if they are directed wisely, they 
ennoble, purify, and make him happy. That keenly 
sensitive nature, which renders him capable of love 
and hatred, joy and sorrow, hope and fear, must 
be controlled : it must have something to love ; 
something which may be loved safely and with- 
out remorse ; something which may be loved with- 
out injury to its ever growing desires ; something 
which is worthy of its love ; something which re- 
sponds to the sincerity and fervor of its affections, 
and which may be pursued with all the ardor 
and intensity which are inseparable from a sensitive 
existence. 

The Bible, and the Bible only, meets these in- 
ward longings of the heart, be they ever so intense 
and exalted. Every human affection finds its place 
in the religion it reveals. The love of self finds its 
proper place there ; and so does the love of kindred, 
and the love of country, and the love of the world, 
and the love of God and man, yea, the love of every- 
thing that is in any measure worthy of love. It does 
not annihilate one of these affections ; it does not 
forbid them ; nor does it degrade them, as faJse re- 
ligions do : nor does it disappoint them, as they ai*e 



ITS ADAPTATION TO xMAN. 207 

always disappointed when they receive a wrong 
direction and impulse. 

Nor in giving them a right direction, does it ever 
unsettle, unhinge, or derange them. While it gives 
them ardor and zeal, it also gives them strength and 
firmness ; and Avhile its impulses are sometimes so 
intensely vivid and strong, that, but for their pure 
and heavenly nature, they would well nigh drive 
the soul to those excesses of emotion which border 
on madness ; they are the very impulses which, when 
indulged in their purity, impart to it loveliness and 
meekness, tenderness and humility, and not unfre- 
quently an almost unearthly splendor, as they do 
well nigh unearthly joys. Religious zeal may some- 
times degenerate into blind enthusiasm; but when 
it does so, it is no longer Christian. Other impulses 
than those which the essential charity of the Gospel 
inspires, render its movements wild and incoherent ; 
while the true spirit of the Bible is the spirit of 
love, of meekness, and of a sound mind. Men may 
be excited in their contemplation of its truth ; they 
may be transported and transformed ; while in their 
most enrapturing contemplations they never lose 
the due equilibrium of thought. The eye of reason is 
still unclouded and clear ; their conceptions are strong 
and brilliant ; nor is there an^^thing they acknowl- 
edge more absolutely than the authority of truth. 
Paul was never more rational than when he was 
^^ caught up into the third heaven," and ^^ whether 
in the body he could not tell, or whether out of 
the body he could not tell." It is a remarkable fact, 



208 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

that every other class of affections of which the 
heart is susceptiblCj may be indulged too far and too 
eagerly ; and when pursued beyond a given point, 
they sound the note of alarm, and tell us that reason 
already begins to totter on her throne ; while the 
affections, and emotions, and sacred passions which 
are excited and gratified by the truths of the Bible, 
to whatever degree they are stimulated, and to what- 
ever extent they are indulged, do but give strength 
and consistency to character, and promote holy en- 
joyment. The religion it reveals is just fitted for 
man's sensitive and ardent nature. It imparts to him 
his true dignity ; brings him into new alliances with 
his Maker ; enstamps upon him his image ; makes 
him his friend, adopts him as his son, and in its pro- 
gressive power makes him like unto the angels. 

It is Y/ith weakness and fear, and much trem- 
bling, that every man contemplates the truth that he 
must die. We carry forth, and commit to the grave, 
the sleeping dust of those we love ; and the inquiry 
forces itself upon us. Will the much and long-cher- 
ished flower shoot upward again, and bloom to 
immortality ? From the bed of languishing, we our- 
selves look down into the dark and hollow sepul- 
chre, and inquire, ^^ If a man die, shall he live 
again?" Reason, nature, conscience, analogy, do 
indeed suggest the thought — the strong probability 
of an hereafter ; but they warrant no conviction that 
satisfies, no certain conclusions where the mind 
pants for certainty. With only such lights as these, 
man is wrapped in obscurity ; his very existence i$ " 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 209 

involved in impenetrable darkness and mystery ; he 
sees no object of his being, no end to be attained by 
it, but to live a little while amid the alternate joys 
and sorrows of this low world, and perpetuate his 
dying race through the same vicissitudes of toil, and 
care, and sorrow, through which he himself has trod- 
den — sometimes his rapid, and sometimes his more 
tardy way, to the gloomy mansions of the grave. The 
thought of annihilation is a dreadful thought ; yet 
it sometimes stares him in the face, presses on him 
on all sides, hangs about him like a leaden curtain ; 
and as one long exposed on the verge of a precipice, 
leaps into the abyss to escape the terrors of suspense, 
so he often longs to seek a refuge in annihilation, 
from the weight of depression and gloom which it 
inspires. Here the Bible is a light shining in a dark 
place ; it brings life and immortality to light : to 
every virtuous mind it announces the glad tidings 
of a glorious hereafter, and through the narrow and 
dark inlet of the grave, points him to an unseen 
world — a world of which he himself is to form a 
part, where he is to be allied to cherubim and ser- 
aphim, and elevated to a celestial throne. The 
thought of immortality is a great and stupendous 
thought. Even viewed at a distance, and as a 
doubtful fact, it must overwhelm with its magnitude 
and grandeur. When contemplated as certain, the 
mind is filled with wonder at it ; and the more it 
contemplates it, the more does the contemplation 
add perpetual interest to the wonder. To this 
greatest of all the wants of man, this Book is 



210 'l'^^ BIBLE NOT OF iVlAiN. 

adapted, giving the coming world a reality, an im- 
portance, a nearness, that gratify his strong and 
restless desires for immortality which it is impossi- 
ble to eradicate, and which are gratified only here. 

Such is the adaptation of the Bible to man as 
an individual. While contemplating this part of 
our subject, I have more than once endeavored to 
rouse my imagination to the eifort of picturing all 
the possible conditions of men, with the view of 
ascertaining* if this remarkable Book has not ^' a 
word in season'' to every individual of the human 
race, in every condition, in every state of mind, 
and in every associated community. Nor is it in 
my power to think of any man, in any condition or 
state of mind, or any society, Avhether high or low, 
learned or ignorant, in prosperity or adversity, in 
sickness or health, in freedom or in bondage, at home 
or abroad, in the church or out of it, happy or mis- 
erable, to whom the Scriptures do not address the 
most fitting counsels, and for whom they have not 
some admonition, or consolation, peculiar to the 
Sacred Writings, and furnished by no other book. 
Its shades of thought, in this respect, are almost end- 
less. It were a delightful employment to mark and 
specify this wonderful variety of moral pencilling, so 
marvellously fitted to the almost endlessly diversi- 
fied character and condition of men. Were a relig- 
ious teacher, familiar with the Bible and deeply 
imbued with its spirit, intimately acquainted with 
the character and state of mind of his entire charge, 
he would be at no loss to select the best adapted in- 



i 



i 



ITS ADAPTATlOx^ TO MAN. 211 

struction for every one of them, in the language and 
words of the sacred volume itself. Even though he 
speak at random, he would not fail to utter truths 
applicable to the unobserved and unknown condition 
of those who hear him ; and in drawing his bow at a 
venture, his arrow would find its mark, even through 
'^ the joints of the harness.'' 

2. From this view of the adaptation of the Bible 
to man as an individual, let us, in the second place, 
advert to the consideration, that it is equally adapted 
to his social relations, Man is a social being : he 
cannot live for himself; nor can he live alone. The 
principles of his social nature must be cared for. 
There are his relations to civil government ; there 
"are his domestic relations ; there are his relations to 
his fellow men in the ordinary transactions of human 
life, which need to be watched over, and controlled, 
and so influenced, as neither to pervert the principles 
of benevolent association, nor lose sight of its object. 
These various relations are nowhere consulted with 
the same benevolent spirit and practical wisdom with 
which they are consulted in the Scriptures : so far 
from it, that in communities where the Bible is not 
known, every one of them presents little else than 
frightful spectacles of crime and misery. 

In a most remarkable manner does the history of 
the world show that the Bible is the great charter of 
human freedom. If the correlative rights and obliga- 
tions of rulers and subjects were under the eff'ective 
control of the Bible, those who bear authority and 
those who are subjected to it, would be helpers of one 



212 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

another's joy ; the yoke of the oppressor would melt 
away ; kings would be foster fathers, and queens 
foster mothers, to a tranquil and regenerated world. 
Among the most important state papers of mod- 
ern timeSj are the Preamble and the Articles of Con- 
federation issued by Francis of Germany, Frederic 
William of Prussia, and Alexander of Russia, signed 
and published at Paris in the year 1815, and sol- 
emnly recognizing, before Europe and the world, the 
religion of Jesus Christ as the only true basis of all 
political relations, and the only directory for the 
nations of the earth. Whatever may have been the 
motives of these distinguished kings and emperors 
in issuing it, it is a noble testimony to the power of 
Christian principles upon states and governments. 
Considering the sources from which it came, a 
stronger and more emphatic tribute to the principles 
of Christianity as the only true principles of govern- 
ment, and the only foundation of national prosperity, 
cannot be expected, or demanded. It is an interest- 
ing fact, that these three great monarchs, ruling over 
more than seventy millions of people, then amid the 
clashing and din of war, should assemble in secret 
conclave, and pay such a tribute to the Bible. 

Nowhere, save in the Scriptures, is there a de- 
scription of the domestic virtues that commends itself 
to a refined and delicate mind ; and nowhere else is 
there to be found such prescriptions for the domestic 
evils which infest and degrade all unchristian and 
anti-christian lands. Nowhere is the domestic char- 
acter and constitution of man so magnified, as in 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 213 

lands where the influence of the Bible is submitted 
to. Nowhere else are those mutual dependencies, 
and those bonds of endearing attachment on which 
the well-being of society depends, protected by such 
solemn sanctions. Nowhere else are the spirit and 
deportment, from which all social enjoyment and 
virtue and usefulness flow, so constantly inculcated 
and so beautifully exemplified. Nowhere else are 
'^whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 
lovely," so much thought of and enjoined. 

The Old Testament Scriptures took up the social 
state where they found it ; nor was it to be perfected 
in a moment. If some of the judicial laws of the 
Jews, themselves but just escaped from the degra- 
dation of paganism, were behind the purer code of 
Christianity, it is not less certain that they were also 
far in advance of the contemporaneous pagan nations. 
The judicial and political economy of the Jews was 
for them alone; it suffered many things ^^for the 
hardness of their hearts," which form no part of a 
perfect moral code ; and it is to God's finished reve- 
lation alone that we must look for those perfect prin- 
ciples which enter into and form the perfection of 
the social state. 

If from these sanctions of the domestic relations 
we go abroad into the world, and inspect the relations 
which man sustains to his fellow men in the ordi- 
nary affairs of human life, we find these relations 
nowhere protected as in the Bible. Let but the in- 
junctions of the Bible regulate the intercourse and 
usages of society, and not a few of those subtil and 



214 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

perplexing questions of casuistry which now agitate 
every part of the business community, would be cut 
short by an arbiter, which even those who think 
themselves honest and honorable men would deem 
an overstrained and an over-sensitive exactness. 

There is a peculiarity in the Bible in regard to 
its influence on the social relations. Men in their 
social capacity are not only exposed to everything 
that is wicked, but to everything that is ultra and 
extravagant. Even the minds of the better sort of 
men need something which human wisdom fails 
to give them ; else are their most honest and best 
intended eff'orts disorganizing, and disastrous to the 
social state. Human society without the Bible, is 
like a ship on the ocean without ballast ; she can 
scarcely live in smooth water : the first storm ingulfs 
her in the waves. The thought is not always 
present to our minds, that the world is under great 
obligations to the Bible, if for nothing but its coii- 
servative priiiciples and influence. It is uniformly 
healthful in its influence, and alike opposed to all 
the indiscretions of a misdirected zeal on the one 
hand, and a rabid radicalism on the other. Ultra 
men and ultra measures, be the objects they aim 
at ever so good, always find the Bible against 
them. ^^ Wisdom is justified of her children;" 
and time and experience show, that those who 
would be better than the Bible are always wrong. 
There is wonderful wisdom in the Bible, not 
only in what it teaches, but in what it does not 
teach. There are agitating and exciting questions 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 215 

which it leaves just where they ought to be left : its 
silence on many subjects speaks volumes. And this 
is the more remarkable, when we consider the great 
amount of its instructions. An impostor, who had 
written so much, Avould have written more. The 
Bible lets many things alone which no impostor 
would have had discretion enough to let alone. It 
does not commit itself, where an impostor would 
have been imperative. While its great principles 
are applicable to every evil in the organization of 
human society, and while its invariable tendency is 
to eradicate these evils, it is careful how it creates a 
needless ferment, and breaks up the foundations of 
the community which it would preserve and bless. 
So far as its decisions go, they are safe. It holds an 
even balance between the extremes of a guilty and 
pusillanimous indifferentism, and a blind, overheated 
exclusiveness. Even with this immutable standard 
in their hands, honest men may err ; but it is a 
delightful thought, and a safe retreat from their 
unjust awards, that the decisions of the Bible are 
paramount to the verdict of fallible men. I have 
never been more impressed with this characteristic 
of the Scriptures, than from the incidental remarks 
of some modern infidels, in their public speeches, 
called forth by some of the exciting topics of the age 
in which we live. More than once have I knovv^n 
them appeal to the Bible, as the acknowledged stand- 
ard of common sense and common discretion. And 
when they do so, it is perfectly obvious that they 
themselves feel that they have solid rock to stand 



216 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

upon. There is a sort of intuitive impression on the 
rdinds of all men, whether they believe the Scrip- 
tures or not, that it is in vain for them to improve 
upon the arrangements of its unequalled wisdom. 

What is man in his social relations without the 
Bible ? Pride boasts of him, but he is a worm. 
Science boasts of him, but he is like the brutes that 
perish. Pleasure, wealth, honor, friends boast of 
him ; but they have not even a gossamer veil to 
cover his shame. Philanthropy boasts of him ; but 
it is a wild, eccentric, meteor-like philanthropy, and 
not like ^^the clear shining of the sun after rain." 
What the Scriptures reveal, is wondrously adapted 
to the social character and condition of man ; there 
is nothing wanting in them, and nothing superfluous. 
Take away any of its instructions in this department, 
and it would be found that there is something in the 
social relations to which it has no counterpart ; add 
to them, and the counterpart is wanting in the social 
relations ; alter them, and these relations themselves 
will need to be altered. 

3. This thought, as well as those submitted in 
the preceding paragraphs, receives additional force 
from the consideration, that this adaptation is as 
large and extensive, as it is minute and particula?\ 
The views of the Bible are comprehensive ; its 
aspects are wide ; the bearing of the entire range 
of its revelations is upon beings and interests that 
are widely spread over all the nations of the earth, 
however related, or classified, and however multi- 
plied and involved their dependencies. The adapta- 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 217 

tion of which we speak extends to the mass, as Avell 
as to the individual ] to the whole, as well as a part ; 
to ^^all men, everywhere." In this respect, Chris- 
tianity differs essentially from all other religions. 
The stamp of locality is to be found on them all. 
They necessarily accommodate themselves to times, 
and places, and men ; and therefore they are muta- 
ble. But the religion of Christ is for the world. 
Man is the same over the whole earth ; but his habits 
in Lapland are different from his habits in the West 
Indies. Yet the Bible is adapted to him wherever 
he is. Different portions of the world have strong 
peculiarities, arising from moral, as well as natural 
causes ; they are influenced by their philosophy, by 
their laws, by arts and sciences, and not a little by 
the fine arts. But Christianity bears one univer- 
sal and uniform character and adaptation to all. 
Though itself immutable, and though never aban- 
doning and never relaxing any one of its principles 
it is equally accommodated to every class of human 
society, every parallel of latitude, and every son and 
daughter of Adam. 

It has not, indeed, always maintained its purity : 
in Christianizing the heathen, it has itself been par- 
tially heathenized; in purifying others, it has itself 
imbibed taints of impurity. ^'Jewish observances, 
Grecian, Roman, Celtic, and Gothic superstitions are 
found in various parts of the nominally Christian 
church, according to the stock from which her pop- 
ulation have sprung." But these impurities are not 
her own; they are the additions of men; made, 

Bible not of Man. JQ 



218 'i'J^^^ BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

indeed, under the pretence of heightening her beauties^ 
while they add defects and blemishes to her original 
and heavenly form. In her native lineaments she is 
equally fitted to be the resident of every clime, under 
every form of government, as well as amidst all those 
previous habits of thinking and acting which would 
at first view seem to be insuperably hostile to her 
influence, 

Judaism, with its burdensome and expensive 
ritual, its gorgeous priesthood, and its now abolished 
ceremonies, never was intended, because it was never 
fitted to be, and never could be, the universal relig- 
ion, any more than the temple at Jerusalem could 
be the temple of the world. All that is moral in the 
Old Testament, in distinction from its positive and 
ceremonial institutions, as we have before remarked, 
is as truly Christian as it is Jewish, and is transferred 
and perpetuated in the Christian system ; while 
whatever is exclusively Jewish, is necessarily local 
and temporary. 

It is equally obvious, that Mahometanism has no ' 
intrinsic adaptation to become the universal religion. 
It has indeed long subsisted, and is at this day the 
established religion of no small portion of the world.. 
But though it admits the divine mission of Moses 
and Jesus, and recognizes many of the fundamental 
articles of the Jewish and Christian faith, it is mixed 
up with so many childish traditions and fables, and 
with the toleration of so many idolatrous rites, and 
with such an indulgence of licentiousness, and de- 
pends, moreover, so exclusively upon the power of 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 219 

the sword , that nothing can be more revolting to 
reason and conscience. 

Christianity on the other hand, while it com- 
mends itself to reason and conscience, without 
which no religion can ever become universal, is in 
every view fitted to become the religion of the hu- 
man race. The elements which give it this supe- 
riority are, its unblemished rectitude — the fact that 
it is a religion of principle — the simplicity of its es- 
sential truths, and their entire independence of all 
systems of human philosophy — the all-sufficiency 
and freeness of its salvation, held forth and pressed 
on the acceptance of every man — the plainness, yet 
the dignity and decency of its outward dress and 
observances- — the economy of its expenditure — the 
liberality of its external organization — its divine im- 
partiality, and its indwelling and all-conquering 
Spirit. These are fitted to carry it everywhere : to 
the polished and to the degraded states of human 
society, to every order of the human intellect, to 
every form of government, and every conceivable 
condition of man's history and being. It is the 
same thing everywhere — everywhere it carries the 
same light, the same obligations, the same convic- 
tions, the same holiness, the same mercy, the same 
hopes, the same consolations. Wherever its bless- 
ings are enjoyed, they are equally needed, equally 
precious ; wherever it comes, they are equally near. 
I say they are equally near. Men need not go for 
them to the Pope of Rome; nor traverse plains 
and mountains to throw themselves under the car 



220 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

of Juggernautj or bathe in the Ganges ; nor need 
they make pilgrimages to Mecca, to Jerusalem, or 
Gerizim. The pilgrim on the rock finds them 
there ; the savage in the desert finds them there ; the 
mariner on the ocean finds them there ; and the 
humble worshipper, in his log-cabin, finds them 
more near and more precious than the less humble 
worshipper in the towering and gorgeous cathedral. 
^^ The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in 
thy heart." 

4. To give still greater weight to these thoughts, 
we remark, that this revelation is equally adapted to 
all periods of time and all ages of the world. It is 
fitted to be the perpetual religion^ and to cover the 
whole series of ages, till this world shall pass away. 
No matter how advanced in science, in morals, in 
government, the world may be, it cannot have a 
better religion than this. When the Saviour stood 
before that magnificent edifice, the temple of Jeru- 
salem, he said to his disciples, " Verily, there shall 
not be left here one stone upon another that shall 
not be thrown down. Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but my words shall not pass a^oay,^'^ Won- 
derful declaration! and not at all wonderful that 
there were those who disbelieved it. When, with 
merely eleven men, he sat down at the Passover, he 
instituted a Supper, of which he said, ^' As oft as ye 
eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the 
Lord's death till he confie?^ We have lived to see 
these predictions fulfilled, so far as the progress of 
time has allowed us to be witnesses ; and now, after 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 221 

the expiration of eighteen centuries, to learn that 
the system of truth and grace of which he was the 
Founder, is but in the freshness of its youth. The 
circumstances under which it was introduced, were 
in the highest degree inauspicious to its continuance 
a single century. Its Founder was slain: save 
two, all its first disciples came to a violent death : 
it was persecuted by the wrath of man and the rage 
of fiends. But it carried within it the indestruc- 
tible elements of perpetuity. It survived all its ene- 
mies, and it survives still, because its great princi- 
ples are imperishable and eternal, are inwoven with 
realities that never pass away, and have an adap- 
tation to the wants and woes of every successive 
generation of men. 

Human laws change, human governments put 
on different forms, systems of philosophy rise and 
fall with every passing century, and the various theo- 
ries of social life expire almost with the same facility 
with which they come into existence, because they 
have no inherent adaptation to the unanticipated 
and perpetually varying condition of mankind. On 
the other hand, the religion of the Bible, because it 
anticipates the wants of man, because it meets these 
wants wherever he is, whatever his condition, and 
at whatever period in the progress of time he may 
dwell on the earth ; instead of carrying with it the 
elements of its own destruction, gathers strength as 
it holds on its way, and in its onward progress com- 
bines the vigor of youth with the rich and ripening 
maturity of age. The secret of this perpetuity is 



222 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. hI 

its inherent and wonderful adaptation to the human 
character in every successive period of time. It is 
built, not upon experience, but upon anticipation. 
This system of government and redemption needs 
no change, because the character of its subjects is a 
fixed and uniform character : the remed}^ is the same, 
because the disease never alters. 

Such is the adaptation of the Bible to the char- 
acter and wants of men. Review these thoughts 
one by one, review them in the aggregate, and say 
if they furnish no evidence of the divine origin of 
the Scriptures. Contrast this Book with the differ- 
ent religious systems which are confessedly of human 
origin, and can you fail to see that these latter are 
radically defective in adaptation to the wants of men, 
and on this account fail of their object ? Men find 
no relief from them. After all the abstinence, pil- 
grimages, ablutions, penance, and blood they enjoin, 
there is not one among them all that satisfies the 
understanding, the conscience, the heart, the immor- 
tality, or that in any view furnishes a basis for hope. 
The restive heart finds nothing in them to tranquil- 
lize its unhallowed excitement ; nothing to feed upon 
save that which augments its misery, because it is 
the aliment of its wickedness. They open no me- 
dium of communication between creatures and the 
God who is invisible ; between the world that is 
seen, and the world that is not seen ; nor do they 
accomplish anything towards healing the breach 
between God and man, or bringing heaven any 
nearer to earth, or earth any nearer to heaven. There 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 223 

is nothing in them by which the nature of man 
becomes purifiedj or elevated, or which discloses any- 
thing that possesses even the slightest pretension to 
a radical cure for the great moral malady that per- 
vades our race. Go where you will throughout the 
pagan world, and it will be found that these are 
wants v/hich the religions of paganism, in all their 
varieties, fail to supply. The chasm is Avide and 
deep, and there is nothing to fill it. Instead of con- 
sulting the condition, and meeting the exigencies 
of man, they actually debase that condition, and aug- 
ment those exigencies, and perpetuate them. Instead 
of being the friend of man, they are his enemy ; and 
instead of lighting up his prospects, they overshadow 
them by the clouds of dark ignorance and wretched 
superstition. Men of thought in pagan lands, them- 
selves saw, and said, that they were systems of delu- 
sion and lies, and acquiesced in them only because 
they could be imposed on the more ignorant and 
unthinking. Can any man of sober thought speak 
thus, or think thus of the Bible ? No, never. He 
may try to do it, but the thing is impossible. 

Whether the Book that thus minutely and ex- 
tensively consults the character and condition of our 
fallen race, is human or Divine, we may leave to 
every ingenuous mind to decide. Does not this 
wondrous adaptation itself bear testimony for it, that 
it is from God? Is not the Bible so fitted to the 
wants of man, that He who made one must have 
actually fashioned both? Does it not speak for 
itself, as the matchless expedient which his wisdom 



224 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

and love have devised for creatures who are apos 
tates from his family ? Not until some other system 
can be specified that thus meets the necessities of 
our racCj may we relinquish our confidence in the 
Bible, or give up the argument for its divine origin 
derived from this adaptation. Whether it utter the 
voice of man or of God, of some foul impostor or the 
God of love, cannot long be a matter of doubt. A 
religion that so Avisely and fully consults the varied 
and richest elements of man's nature, carries the 
evidence with it that it is from the Author of that 
nature. It will be difiicult to reason a man out of his 
belief in divine revelation, or to laugh him out of it, 
who has clear conceptions of its fitness to his wants. 
It were no easy matter for an impostor to devise 
a religion, which, while it suited with so much pre- 
cision to the individual, should at the same time be 
equally adapted to the entire race ; and while it 
should consult the peculiarities of one age of time, 
should not be less relevant to all successive ages. 
Men have never found themselves so wise. A parent 
who has but one child to instruct and govern, is jus- 
tified in pursuing a very different course with that 
one, from the course he would pursue as the head of 
a numerous family. The monarch of a single pro- 
vince can more easily prescribe a code of laws for 
that single province, than arrange a system of gov- 
ernment that is alike adapted to a thousand distinct 
and distant provinces. A system of instruction and 
government that is equally adapted to the whole 
family of man, and to every isolated individual of 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 225 

that family, must not only comprise many things, 
but be very nicely adjusted, and maintain an invari- 
able tendency to one and the same benevolent end. 
Every part of it must be wisely selected, and all the 
parts, taken together, must be wisely suited to one 
another. It must view every individual in connec- 
tion with the whole, and the whole in its relations 
to every individual. The Bible is such a system; 
it consults all these relations — relations which no 
finite mind in the universe could have anticipated 
or discovered, much less a collection of minds, of 
varied character, and so separated by time and cir- 
cumstance as to be precluded from all possibility of 
collusion. In all its great principles, and in all the 
filling up of these great outlines ; in all its laws and 
organization ; in all its worship and rites ; in all its 
sanctions, motives and influences, here is a system 
of truth and grace every way adapted to man's con- 
dition and character. The material world does not 
present more, or more admirable instances of adapta- 
tion, or those which are more expressive of the wis- 
dom of its Author, than are here presented in the 
immaterial and spiritual. It is not an attempt at the 
restoration of man ; but to the full extent in which 
it is faithfully applied, it effects it. It is not an 
attempt at religion ; it is a religion, and the only re- 
ligion adapted to man. It is not an attack upon the 
enemy, or a mere prescription for the disease ; it is 
a victory over him, and a sovereign cure. Just as 
light is adapted to the eye and sound to the ear ; just 
as the solid earth is adapted to one class of animated 

Biblfi not of Man. 10* 



226 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

existencies, the sea to another, and the air to a third — 
just J in one word, as there is a suitableness in all 
the parts of nature, in themselves, in the succession 
and order in which they act, and with a view to the 
effect finally produced, which indicates the wisdom 
of the Great Contriver, is the revelation made in 
the Bible adapted to the nature and recovery of fal- 
len man, and equally indicative of the same uncre- 
ated wisdom. 

This is one of the arguments on which the Bible 
itself rests its own claims to a superhuman origin. 
In full view of the deadly nature and alarming ex- 
tent of the spiritual miseries which are the inheri- 
tance of our race, its gracious Author proclaims him 
self the Sovereign Healer. To men whom sin has 
made poor, and naked, and blind, and miserable, he 
says, ^^ I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the 
fire, that thou mayest be rich ; and white raiment, 
that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of 
thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thine eyes 
with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." To men who 
despise their own mercies, and weary themselves in 
the pursuit of that they will never find, he says, 
^' Wherefore spend ye your money for that which is 
not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth 
not ? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that 
which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fat- 
ness." To men who are bewildered, without a clue 
to guide them in the dreary labyrinth, he says, '' I 
am the light of the world : he that followeth after 
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 227 

light of life." To men who thirst for happiness, 
and find nothing to allay their febrile desires, or 
cool their parched tongues, his language is, ^^ If any 
man thirst, let him come unto me and drink!" 
While to the ten thousand wants that lift up their 
voices and send their cry to the heavens, this Book 
responds, '' Whosoever shall drink of the water that 
I shall give him, shall never thirst ; but the water 
that I shall give him, shall be in him a w^U of water 
springing up into everlasting life." Time and experi- 
ence have fully justified these high claims. The ex- 
periment has been made with every other religion ; 
they have all been '' weighed in the balances, and 
found wanting." It is too late to invent another and 
a new religion; men are shut up to the Gospel of 
Christ; as the light of the world and the life of men. 

Different views of the excellence of the Bible, 
make different impressions upon different minds; 
but if we mistake not, the argument from its adapta- 
tion to the character and wants of men, holds a high 
place with minds of every class. 

That martyr to the missionary cause, the Rev. 
John Williams, of the London Missionary Society, 
relates a circumstance which took place among the 
natives of the South Sea islands, which those who 
have read the biography of this remarkable man will 
remember. The officers of the British ship Seringa- 
patam, after intercourse with a number of the natives 
who had been converted to Christianity, expressed 
their doubts whether the views which these ignorant 
people had uttered on the subject of religion, were 



228 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 



their own views ; and even asserted, that both the 
missionary and these professed converts were prac- 
tising deception upon their visitors. In order to 
decide this question, Mr. WiUiams invited Captain 
Waldgrave, the Rev. Mr. Watson, the ship's chap- 
lain, and other gentlemen, to an interview with 
fifteen of the natives, for the purpose of free conver- 
sation on religious subjects. 

On their being assembled. Captain Waldgrave 
proposed the question to them, ^' Do you believe the 
Bible is the word of God^ and that Christianity is 
of divine origin ?" The natives were rather startled 
at the question, having never entertained a doubt 
upon that point. At length one replied, ''Most 
certainly we do.^^ '^ And why do you believe it?" 
After some reflection, one of them said, ^^ We look 
at the power with which it has been attended in effect- 
ing the entire overthrow of idolatry among us ; and 
which, we believe, no human m^eans could have in- 
duced us to abandon.^^ 

The same question being proposed to a second, 
he replied, ^^ I believe the Scriptures to be of divine 
origin, on account of the system of salvation they 
reveal. We had a religion before, transmitted to us 
by our ancestors, whom we considered the wisest of 
m^en ; but how dark and black a system, that was, 
compared with the bright scheme of salvation pre- 
sented in the Bible! Here we learn that we are 
sinners; that God gave his Son Jesus Christ to 
die for us ; and that through believing, the sal- 
vation procured becomes ours. Now, what but the 



I 



ITS ADAPTATION TO MAN. 229 

wisdom of God could have devised such a system as 
this ?" 

The question being repeated to an old and 
shrewd pagan priest, then a devoted Christian, ^^ in- 
stead of replying to it at once, he held up his hands, 
and rapidly moved the joints of his wrists and fin- 
gers ; he then opened and shut his mouth ; and 
closed these singular actions by raising his leg, and 
moving it in various directions. Having done this, 
he said, ^ See^ I have hinges all over me ; if the 
thought grows in my heart that I wish to handle 
anything^ the hinges in my hands enable me to do 
so. If I want to utter anything, the hinges of m^y 
jaws enable me to say it ; and if I desire to go any- 
where, here are hinges to m^y legs, to enable me to 
walk. Now I perceive great ivisdom in the adapta- 
tion of my body to the various wants of my Qnind ; 
and when I look into the Bible, and see there the 
proofs of wisdom which correspond exactly with these 
which appear in my frame, I conclude that the 
Maker of my body is the Author of that book.^ " 

This is the sum and substance of the argument 
from the idea of adaptation. Verily, '' out of the mouth 
of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained praise, 
that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger /" 
Strange that so many wise men after the flesh can- 
not discern what was so obvious to the mind of this 
poor heathen! Well is it written of the Saviour, 
that ^^ he rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O 
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid 
these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed 



230 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

them unto babes. Even so. Father, for so it seemed 
good in thy sight !" This wonderful moral mechan- 
ism, these numberless articulations in the religion 
of the Bible, so exactly fitted to the numberless 
cavities of the human mind, playing in them as a 
ball in a socket, certainly deserve to be considered 
among the specimens of ineffable wisdom, and are 
not to be overlooked among the internal proofs that 
this Book is not the work of creatures. 

When Sir Walter Scott returned, a tremblmg 
invalid, from Italy to die in his native land, the sight 
of home so invigorated his spirits that some hope 
was cherished that he might recover. But he 
found that he must die. Addressing his son4n4aw, 
he said, ^^ Bring me a book,^^ ^'What book?" re- 
plied Lockhart. ^^Can you ask," replied the man 
whose works have charmed the world — ^' can you 
ask what book ? — there is but one .'" Precious Bible ! 
There is nothing it does not offer, nothing it does 
not give to the man who feels his wants and s^eks 
its bounty. Truth that never grows old, riches that 
never decay, pleasures that never cloy, a crown that 
is never tarnished, griefs assuaged and fears tranquil- 
lized, bright hopes, and incorruptible immortality, 
are the gift of God to all the lovers of the Bible. 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 231 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE SCRIPTURES ATTESTED 
BY CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

There is one class of proofs for the divine 
origin of the Scriptures which is of a peculiar sort. 
Of how much use it may be in convincing an adver- 
sary, we shall have something to say before we close 
the present chapter : to the Christian himself it is the 
best of all proofs. It is, by way of distinction, called 
the inward^ or spiritual evidence ; that is, the evi- 
dence applied by the Spirit of God to the heart of 
the true believer, and which results from his own 
personal experience of the power of Christian truth. 
Independently of all the external and historical testi- 
mony, and though not independent, yet separate 
from all other internal and rational evidence, there 
is a self-evidencing power in the Scriptures, which 
declares, by its influence on the mind and heart of 
the believer, that they are the word of God. 

The Scriptures profess to accomplish,for all those 
who believe and obey them, what nothing else 
accomplishes. One way of proving to ourselves 
that this profession may be relied on, consists in 
making an honest and practical use of what they 
reveal. The religion they reveal professes to be a 



232 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

remedy for the inveterate disease of sin ; to bring to 
the soul pardon, peace, and progressive holiness ; and 
the true way of putting the remedy to the test is to 
try it. The language of the Bible to men is, ^'Try 
the remedy this book proposes for yourselves ; see 
if it be not what it represents itself to be. Prove it ; 
follow its directions. Do what it requires you to do. 
If in its practical effects, and in the different stages 
and degrees of its application, it accomplishes what 
it professes to accomplish, it will be found worthy 
of your confidence. If, on the other hand, after a 
fair and honest trial, it does not accomplish what it 
professes, let it be pronounced a failure, and looked 
upon as a trick of moral jugglery and imposture." 
With men of fair and ingenuous mindSj I see not 
how such an appeal as this can be resisted, or even 
trifled with. It must be confessed, that those who 
adopt this method of ascertaining the divine origin 
of the Scriptures, have some advantage over those 
who never make this honest experiment ; while it is 
with an ill grace that the latter refuse to believe 
them. It is a very easy way of settling the ques- 
tion ; it would seem, upon all the acknowledged 
principles of sound reasoning, to be a decisive way ; 
and it is open to all who have access to the Scrip- 
tures. 

Has, then, the Bible proved itself a failure ? and 

are there those who have fairly and honestly brought 

it to the test of experiment, who are convinced that 

it is not of God ? Or has it proved itself true to the 

etter ; and are not all those who ^^ have obeyed from 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 233 

the heart that form of doctrine" which it delivers, 
most thoroughly assm-ed that God is its Author, 
because the revelations it makes fall in with their 
own experience? This is the question we propose 
to discuss ; and it is simply a question of fact. We 
have nothing to do just now with tho bearing of this 
fact upon our argument, but simply with the fact 
itself. 

There are those who do not obey the truth 
revealed in the Bible, and who, for this reason alone, 
have not this inward evidence that it is the word of 
God. How should they have it? And there are 
those who, while they are free to acknowledge their 
defects, do in some good measure obey it. They 
are the friends of truth and righteousness. They 
fear God, and love his Son. They respect his insti- 
tutions, venerate his law, and make it the great 
object of their lives so to live as to enjoy his appro- 
bation. They are men of prayer, because they are 
sensible of their dependence on God, and their obli- 
gations to him ; they are godly men, and men who 
are habitually influenced more by unseen and eter- 
nal realities, than by the things that are seen and 
temporal. We afiirm that this class of men are con- 
scious of an inward and moral sympathy with the 
disclosures made in the sacred volume, and that 
their own personal experience falls in with these 
disclosures. 

1. The great truths of the Bible are fitted to 
exert an influence on the internal emotions : they 
are weighty and important enough to do so ; and 



234 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

they do actually produce a response in the bosom 
of every right-hearted man. 

If you hold up to him a different delineation of 
the Divine character from that which is presented in 
the Scriptures, his mind instinctively revolts from it. 
His hope, his refuge, his portion, the God he loves 
and rejoices in, is the God of the Bible. The most 
subtil errorist cannot decoy the friends of God by 
any artful, or distorted views of the Divine character. 
Detract from his full-orbed excellence, or obscure its 
amiableness and glory by any additions of man's 
devising, and they instantly take the alarm. What 
the Bible affirms of God, their own hearts affirm: 
the moral sympathy is complete. Give them his 
presence and favor, and you cannot make them mis- 
erable : deny them these, and you cannot make them 
happy. 

They have the same inward sympathy with the 
Scriptures in the views they exhibit concerning the 
sinful character and lost condition of man. Severe 
as the imputations are which the Bible records 
against men as sinners, and though they are impu- 
tations which no man naturally submits to, and 
which, if untrue, prove this book to be a false accus" 
er ; yet do good men uniformly acquiesce in them, 
while the best of men have the strongest convictions 
of their truth. Their own daily confessions are the 
echo of these humbling statements ; while the longer 
they live, the more do they discover sources of wick- 
edness in themselves, which lead them to wonder 
how their own character could have been described 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 235 

in the Bible with so much precision. They are 
surprised to find how intimate an acquaintance it 
discovers with their own heart; how it turns it 
inside out, and ferrets out its inmost recesses. 

The same inward sympathy is also felt with the 
representations which the Bible gives of the way of 
salvation by Christ. There is no truth which pious 
men have more honestly put to the test of experi- 
ence than this. They have tried other remedies, 
and found no relief either from the curse of the 
law, or the dominion of sin. They have been 
driven from every other refuge, and have found in 
the Lamb of God alone the refuge they were look- 
ing for. The Bible tells them of One whose ^' blood 
cleanseth from sin," and through whom there is 
^' peace with God ;" and they have found it so, in 
the possession of peace which is as a river, and joys 
that are like the waves of the sea. The view which 
a Christian has of the method of salvation by Christ, 
is entirely diiferent from that of the man whose 
head only is orthodox. He loves it ; he confides in 
it ; it is a view which he takes for himself and for 
his own soul. It is to him just what the Bible rep- 
resents it to be ; it is '^ precious ;'' there is a glory, 
and majesty, and beauty in it ; a fitness and all- 
sufficiency in it, that mark it as the salvation he 
needs. It is his home ; he cannot live without it. 
Take it from him, and you crush his hopes : you 
make him miserable. Whatever may be his powers 
of intellect, whatever his situation in life, the man 
who receives this redemption and lives upon it, has 



236 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

something within him that is the counterpart of this 
blessed Gospel. 

The same sympathy is also experienced with 
that great truth so much insisted on in the Scrip- 
tures, the regeneration of the soul by the Spirit of 
God. Good men have had a personal experience of 
the necessity of this change ; and they are not un- 
frequently as conscious of the change itself, as they 
were of those sinful principles and affections which 
existed within them before the change took place. 
They have affections and principles of conduct to 
which they were once strangers, and which are 
altogether unlike those which belong to a mere 
speculative view of this truth. Men who have had 
the Gospel preached to them for years, and who, as 
a matter of mere rational inquiry, understood this 
truth none the better for having heard it so often, 
have now clear views of it, and views as different 
from what they once had as light is from darkness. 

If from the regenerating, we advert to the sanc- 
tifying work of the Spirit of God, and the meliora- 
ting, subduing influence of that spiritual religion of 
which the Scriptures speak, we find them equally 
responded to by a still, small voice within the soul. 
Every gracious affection renewed and invigorated 
is an expression of this sympathy ; every breath of 
prayer is a recognition of it. The bright and bright- 
ening constellation of graces that lights up, with its 
rare lustre, the otherwise dark pathway from time to 
eternity, is but the reflection of those great truths 
of the Bible which shine as a light in a dark place. 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 237 

The Christian will tell you just what the Bible tells 
you of the nature of true piety, and the power of 
that grace by which it is produced and sustained ; 
and by which, in defiance of inward obstacles and 
outward foes, it is perpetuated, and matured for 
heaven. There is that within him that corresponds 
to the teachings of the Bible without him. The 
evidence of this correspondence is his own con- 
sciousness, which is the best and the strongest evi- 
dence. It is the testimony of the work of the Spirit 
within the soul, uniting with his recorded testimony 
in the Scriptures. It is the same law written on the 
fleshly tables of the heart, that is written with pen 
and ink on the sacred pages. It is the testimony 
of that same conviction, conversion, and sanctifica- 
tion ; of that same change from darkness to light, 
and ail those gracious affections, desires, hopes and 
consolations which are spoken of in the Bible, them- 
selves speaking the work of their Author. 

2. The Bible is a book of promises^ '^ exceeding 
great and precious promises." Promises bloom upon 
this Tree of Life like the blossoms of spring ; nor do 
they deceive us when autumn comes, and the fruit 
is gathered. They are promises which respect the 
life that now is, and that which is to come. They 
speak of '^blessings upon the head of the just," and 
of ^^all that their heavenly Father knoweth that 
they need." They are promises of safety ''under 
the shadow of the Almighty," and of deliverance out 
of their '' many afiiictions." They speak of '' their 
mourning turned into joy ;" of '' light arising to 



238 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

them in the darkness;" and of thek ^^consolations 
abounding by Christ/' as the '' sufferings of Christ 
abound in them." They are promises to the youngs 
to the middle aged, and to the '^ hoary head when 
found in the way of righteousness." They are 
assurances that God is ^^ the Father of the father- 
less," and the widow's guardian and avenger '^ in his 
holy habitation." To the tempted they are prom- 
ises of succor ; of wisdom to the unwise ; of strength 
to the weak ; and to the fearful, of courage and con- 
fidence. They speak of pardon and justification, of 
adoption and sanctification, of free access to God, 
of '^ grace to help in the time of need," of strength 
according to their day, and of perseverance to the 
end. They are promises of victory over the world, 
of the Divine presence and love, of God's indwell 
ing Spirit, and of delight and joy in him. There 
are promises to faith, to repentance, to obedience, 
and to the sacred observance of the Lord's day. 
There are promises to the liberal and the merciful, 
to the meek and the forgiving, and to those who 
suffer for righteousness' sake. The Bible is in no 
small degree made up of such gracious engagements ; 
it is God's covenant with his people, to which he 
has affixed his seal and annexed his oath. His 
strong and triumphant demand in relation to these 
engagements is, ^' Hath he said, and shall he not do 
it ? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it 
good?" 

Promises like these throw themselves upon every 
day's experience and observation. They are easily 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 239 

brought to the test ; and when thus brought, what 
is the testimony as to their fulfilment ? Let the 
Christian world furnish the answer to this inquiry. 
Let the infidel world furnish the examples of failure, 
if it can. Steady and uniform as the perpetual 
and regular return of seed-time and harvest, cold and 
heat, summer and winter, day and night, and bright 
and sure as God's bow in the clouds, is the expe- 
rience of God's people to the truth of his promises. 
God himself more than once appeals to it as the 
standing token of his covenant with them, and says 
to them, ^^ Ye know in all your hearts and all your 
souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good 
things which the Lord your God spake concerning 
you." With facts like these before him, who can 
doubt that God is the Author of the Bible ? Is not 
the life of the Christian an ^' on-going proof that 
Scripture is truth?" 

3. There is another peculiarity in the instruc- 
tions of the Bible, which is also easily brought to 
the test of experience. I allude to its instructions 
on the subject of prayer. It abounds in inculcating 
the duty of prayer ; it speaks largely of the power of 
prayer ; while page after page is devoted to recount- 
ing the achievements of prayer. It teaches that 
God is the '^ hearer of prayer ;" and that ^' the effec- 
tual, fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth 
much." We affirm that the experience of the men 
of prayer is in remarkable coincidence with the spirit 
and import of these instructions, and furnishes per- 
petually accumulative evidence of the truth of the 



240 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

Sacred Writings. Every Christian knows that the 
God of the Bible is the hearer of prayer. His own 
history records many a want supphed by prayer; 
many a vile affection held in check and subdued by 
prayer ; many an unforgiving thought suppressed, 
and many a tempest of passion passed away amid 
the calm and unobserved retirement of his closet. 
He can tell of many a languishing grace revived, 
many a depressed hope encouraged, many a doubt- 
ful and arduous enterprise crowned with success by 
help received at the throne of the heavenly grace. 
He can tell of darkness dissipated by prayer; of 
rough places made plain, and the crooked straight, 
by prayer ; of dangers averted, fears vanquished, and 
enemies overcome ; perplexity removed, and duties 
for which he was incompetent performed, through 
prayer. In the time of trouble, prayer has been his 
refuge; and in the hottest furnace of affliction he 
has been enabled to say, ^^ Blessed be God, even the 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the God of all 
comfort, who cdmforteth us in all our tribulation!" 
How often have public calamities been averted, or 
deferred, or mitigated by prayer ; and where has the 
Spirit of God descended, and '' souls been renewed, 
and sins forgiven," save through the power of 
prayer ? 

Of no fact in the history of the church does the 
experience of good men furnish more abundant tes- 
timony, than of the efficacy of that spirit of holy 
Avrestling which finds its expression and its conquests 
at the throne of grace. The convictions of pious 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 241 

men are very strong in this respect, and marvellously 
imiform. So strong are they, that it is no exagger- 
ation to say, that they appreciate no blessings so 
highly as those procured by prayer ; nor is there any 
earthly privilege or comfort of which they would 
not sooner be denied, than access to the mercy-seat. 
Now it strikes us that this is a very remarkable, 
and indeed an unaccountable fact, unless the instruc- 
tions of the Bible on the subject of prayer are truth- 
ful. It is far otherwise in false religions. Men who 
offer their supplications to the Virgin Mary, or to 
departed saints, have no such experience as this. The 
worshippers of pagan gods pray to idols which their 
own hands have formed, but receive no answer* 
The moon is cold and deaf, and turns not from her 
steady course when oblation after oblation is poured 
out on the altar of this ^^ queen of heaven." And 
the sun is listless, when sacrifice upon sacrifice sends 
upward its costly fragrance, to immingle with his 
rising, or setting beams. Like the prophets of Baal, 
when from morning to evening they cried to their 
absent, or sleeping deity, all such worshippers ^^ find 
neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any :to regard 
them." We make our appeal to unbelievers them- 
selves, and ask them to tell us from their own obser- 
vation, if when, as Christian men, we ^4ift up our 
heart to God who dwelleth in the heavens," we 
have no greater evidence that he is the hearer of 
prayer than the pagan has when he prays to the 
'^ host of heaven," or the Musselman when he pays 
his devotions at the shrine of the false prophet ? 

Bible not of Man. ^'^ 



242 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

^^ Where are thy gods now ? let them arise and save 
thee^ if they, can save thee !" The best affections 
of the Christian heart start into being, and thrill 
with delight at the mercy-seat. The experience of 
the men of prayer speaks the language of the Bible ; 
there is no truth uttered by the divine oracles on 
the whole subject of prayer, diversified as these 
teachings are, but is, with wonderful precision, veri- 
fied in their own spiritual history. 

4. We pursue this induction of facts only a 
single step farther. The Scriptures profess to 
strengthen the people of God on the bed of lan- 
guishing, and to give them peace and consolation in 
death. These are strong and high professions. We 
read in the Bible of the /^ rod and staff" that com- 
fort the believer when he walks through the dark 
valley ; of One who, when //flesh and heart fail," 
is the /^strength of his heart and his portion for- 
ever;" and of peace, and hope, and triumph over 
the /4ast enemy." Whence come these high pro- 
fessions ? Who is it, that professes thus to cheer 
the mind weighed down by the ravages of disease, 
desolated of all hope from creatures, and shrinking 
with instinctive dread from the agonies of death 
and the corruption of the grave ? Who is it, in 
that sad hour when all human vigor and courage 
are broken and shivered ; when all sublunary joys 
retire, and the tenderest ties that bind man to man 
are about to be broken, and the agitated spirit must 
go alone to her last account, that thus professes to 
soothe its fears and give it hope and confidence ? 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 243 

The Bible does this, and Christian experience teaches 
the same unutterably precious lesson, and is itself 
the edifying spectacle of grace thus pledged to take 
away the sting of death, and from the grave its 
victory. 

If this be not the uniform lesson, yet is it the 
lesson of Christian experience : ^^ The wicked is driven 
away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope 
in his death,^^ I cannot tell how it is with other 
ministers of the Gospel, and with other men : for 
myself I can say, for almost forty years I have been 
familiar with scenes of sickness and death- — among 
the rich and the poor — amid the ordinary visitations 
of disease, and amid the raging pestilence ; and I 
cannot recall to my mind a single instance in which 
I have seen a wicked man die in peace. I have seen 
wicked men die courageously, and as though every 
nerve were wrought up to its highest tension in 
order to meet the conflict ; but I have never seen one 
go out of the world peacefully, I have seen them 
submit to their fate, because their hour had come, 
and they could not help it. I have seen them die 
in stupid and brutish ignorance of their own character 
as sinners, and of a coming hereafter, just as many a 
pagan dies ; but it was not a peaceful death. I have 
seen them die under the influence of powerful nar- 
cotics, and when they did not know they were dying, 
and when medical attendants announced that their 
death was tranquil and without a struggle. I have 
seen them die in that state of indiff'erence to life 
which is produced by the languor of disease, the 



244 ^^^ BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

sorrow of hopeless disappointment, and the agony 
of pain. I have seen them die in the insensibiHty 
of age, in unbelief of the truth, in hardness of 
heart, and when ^^ there were no bands in their 
death." And who has not known of multitudes 
who were even so willing to die, that they ''chose 
strangling, and death rather than life ?" But scenes 
like these no more resemble the triumphant, or even 
the peaceful death of a Christian, than the death of 
Nero resembled the death of Moses, or of Paul. 

It is not by inspecting such scenes as these, 
that this question can be brought to a practical test. 
Place yourself by the bedside of a dying man, 
whose mind is clear, whose conscience is awake, 
and who has strong perceptions of his own guilt and 
an approaching* eternity ; and it will be found that 
such a man dies in peace, and only he, who has 
found peace in that Saviour '' whom God hath set 
forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.-' 
If it be said that Christians themselves do not always 
die triumphantly, or even peacefully, we grant that 
it is so. A good man may die suddenly, and have 
no time for thought ; he may die in a state of intel- 
lectual debility, or derangement, which incapacitates 
him even for hope : he may die when his loins are 
not girt about him, and his lamp is not trimmed and 
burning, and therefore he may die under the hidings 
of God's countenance, and pass away under the 
cloud ; while in fact, his death never partakes of the 
agony and remorse of the wicked, and in the ordi- 
nary dispensations of Divine Providence, is full of 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 245 

peace and joy. And it deserves consideration, that 
his death is the more fall of joy and peace in believ- 
ing, in proportion to the clearness and strength of 
his views of those truths and realities, Avhich, the 
more clearly they are seen and felt, the more certainly 
do they carry consternation and dismay to the dying 
sinner. No sense of the dying Christian's ill desert 
diminishes his confidence in atoning blood and 
abounding grace ; no strong conceptions of a holy 
God disturb his tranquillity, but rather do they fill 
him with rejoicing ; no receding world, no approach- 
ing eternity agitates him, because this world is not 
his rest, and his home is eternity. 

Time would fail me to tell how Christians die ; 
nor can anything save the pen of the recording 
angel, who has stood by their bed of death and borne 
them to Abraham's bosom, narrate the unnumbered 
instances of their delightful departure from the pres- 
ent world, which verify the truth of the Bible. ^' I 
could never have believed," said a dying saint, ^^ that 
it was so delightful a thing to die ; or that it was 
possible to have such views of the heavenly world 
as I now enjoy." The memorable Melancthon, just 
before he died, chanted in his sleep the words, ^^I 
will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in 
the kingdom of God." He seemed restless, and on 
being asked by one near him, ^^ Whether there were 
anything more, that he desired ?" replied, ^^ Aliud 
nihil, nisi ccelum. — nothing more, unless it be heav- 
en." The most forbidding aspect now and then 
presented by the Christian's death, is that of rigid 



246 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

scrutiny into the foundation of his hopes, or pensive 
and submissive tenderness, that he is denied those 
bright lights which he fondly hoped to enjoy. As 
a general fact, ^^the chamber where the good man 
meets his fate " unfolds the scenes of heavenly 
mercy ; it presents the theory of Christian truth, 
in the experience of a mind that knows how to 
value it. And therefore it may be experience that 
varies from a hesitating, to a vigorous faith : from a 
mournful remembrance of the past, to an exulting 
anticipation of the future ; from the tranquillity of a 
peaceful, to the bursting joys of a rapturous mind: 
yet is it true to God, and true to his word. 

Infidels themselves see and feel the weight of 
such facts 6is these ; and not a few of them have 
been constrained to adopt the language, ^' Let me 
die the death of the righteous, and let my last end 
be like his!" A writer in the Scottish Mirror 
aflfirms of David Hume, that, having witnessed in 
the family of the venerable La Roche those con- 
solations which the Gospel alone could impart, he 
confessed, with a sigh, 'Hhat there were moments 
when, amidst all the pleasures of philosophical dis- 
covery, and the pride of literary fame, 'he wished 
that he had never doubted,^ " 

We will not say, such are the facts on which we 
rest our statement ; for they are but a partial exem- 
plification of the facts on which we rest the propo- 
sition, that there is a self-evidencing power in the 
Scriptures to every man who cordially receives themj 
which declares^ by its influence on his own soul^ that 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 247 

they are the word of God. We proceed . to suggest 
several considerations, with the view of showing 
the importance of the facts we have stated, and 
the influence they claim in the argument in favor 
of Divine inspiration. Here we beg the objector 
to give all the force they deserve to the folloAving 
remarks. 

1. In the first place, th.^ positive conviction arising 
from the Christianas experience of the truth of the 
divine oracles, cannot be philosophically overthrown 
by the mere negative conviction of the Deist who has 
no such experience, A million of negatives cannot 
overturn one positive. It is no proof that you do 
not see the light of the sun, that men who are born 
blind never saw it. It is no proof that the Chris- 
tian's experience does not verify the truths of rev- 
elation, that the experience of men who are not 
Christians never verifies it. If the believer '^ has the 
witness in himself," it does not falsify his testimony 
that the unbeliever has no such witness. The testi- 
mony of the unbeliever is not opposing testimony ; 
it is simply no testimony at all. It would be worso 
than childish for a jury to pronounce a man innocent 
of the crime for which he stands arraigned, because 
ten men declare under oath that they did not see 
him commit it, so long as five credible witnesses 
affirm that they did see him.. Nor is this a stronger 
case than the one under consideration. The testi- 
mony of one creditable witness to a fact which he 
himself has observed, would overturn the negatives 
of half the world. Negation, in the law of evidence. 



248 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

is nothing ; it is simply opposing nothing to some- 
thing. An experienced Christian, weak though he 
may be in all other sources of proof, is immoveable 
in this. He is more than a match for the subtil 
sceptic. The sceptic has doubts, the Christian has 
knowledge ; the sceptic has theory, the Christian has 
matter of fact. 

3. It is of some importance also to remark, in 
the second place, that this inward testimony to the 
truth of the Bible is founded on good and solid 
reasons. 

The Deist replies to the Christian, who reasons 
as we have been reasoning. All this is a matter of 
mere feeling ; it is simply your own impression ; it 
cannot be argued out, but is a fancy of your own ! 
No, it is not so : it is argument ; it is a just and 
irrefragable conclusion from premises that are true. 
Those premises are, that there is no effect without 
an adequate cause ; the conclusion is, that the effect 
produced by the Bible on the mind and heart of the 
Christian, is one whose cause is God. They are 
effects which nothing else can produce. Everything 
else has been tried — tried in every form, in every 
age, and by all the combinations of human power 
and human wisdom — and has proved a failure. If 
the Bible does not produce them, it is false to its 
own engagements; if it does produce them, it is 
true. This is one of the points on which it has 
committed itself. Its language is, '^Search the 
Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, 
and they are they which testify of me." '' Taste 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 249 

and see that the Lord is good." "If any man will 
do his will J he shall know of the doctrine whether it 
be of God.^^ No system of falsehood would ever 
have ventured to make such appeals as these. It is 
the easiest thing in the world for infidels to put the 
claims of the Bible to this test : they have but to do 
as it requires them to do, and the issue is perfectly 
decisive. It so happens that every man who does 
this, all the world over, finds out, that "the anoint- 
ing which abide th in him is truth, and no lie." 
"Come see a man," says the woman of Samaria, 
" that told me all things that ever I did : is not this 
the Christ?" The same strong conviction was pro 
duced on the minds of her countrymen, and from the 
same cause. " Many believed on him because of his 
own word ; and said unto the woman, Now we be- 
lieve, not because of thy saying, but because we 
have heard him ourselves ; and we know that this is 
the Christ, the Saviour of the world." This was 
the method which the first disciples and apostles of 
Jesus pursued in order to bring to the test his extra- 
ordinary claims. Those whom his pergonal charac 
ter seemed to convince, and whom his instructions 
did not convince, did not long continue to follow 
him. Those who were convinced, even by his mir- 
acles, and were not obedient to his doctrines, but 
ojffended by them, "went back, and walked no more 
with him ;" while those who obeyed his voice, for- 
sook all, and followed him ; and when others went 
away, exclaimed, "Lord, to whom shall we go? 
thou hast the words of eternal life ; and we believe, 

Bible not of Man. ] J# 



250 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the 
living God !" 

The Christian's experience of the truth of the 
Divine promises and the power of prayer ^is of the 
same convincing kind. If the Bible is false in these 
particulars, it is no difficult matter to detect the 
falsehood. Prayer cannot be answered, nor these 
promises fulfilled, except by God. He who is the 
hearer of prayer, and who fulfils the promises, must 
be concerned in the government of the world, as no 
other being is concerned save Him who made it. If 
he thus hears the prayers of his people, and accom- 
plishes these promises, every answered prayer and 
accomplished promise furnishes evidence of the di- 
vine origin of the Scriptures. They ask, and receive : 
what is this but a witness that this Book is divine? 
They obey a direction of the Bible, and find the 
accompanying promise fulfilled ; and what is this 
but proof that the direction and the promise are from 
God ? If promises and directions like these were 
false, they would carry with them their own con-, 
demnation; the whole course of Divine Providence 
would testify against them, and give them the lie. 
No impostor would thus jeopard his veracity; nor 
would such pretensions ever have occurred to the 
mind of an impostor. If the Bible is the word of 
God, it may well thus commit itself, because its Au- 
thor is both able and willing to redeem the pledge. 
His honor is concerned in making it good; while 
the experience of its fulfilment testifies, that the 
Book which reveals it is not the work of man. The 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 251 

argument from Christian experience, therefore, is 
not a mere impression of imagination, or overween- 
ing enthusiasm; it is sober, convincing argument. 
Christian men are living witnesses for God's truth ; 
they know tha,t the Bible is not of earthly origin ; 
they have no more doubt of it than they have that 
the sun shines in the heavens. It is impossible for 
the subtleties, or the clamors of false philosophy, to 
diminish the strength of this inward conviction. 
The most unlettered Christian, shut out from the 
world, and in the remote recesses of the wilderness, 
has evidence of the truth of the Bible, within his 
own soul, which all the sophistry in the world cannot 
invalidate. 

3, There is a third remark, which presents this 
internal and spiritual evidence still more clearly in 
the light of rational conviction. It relates to the 
fiature of the evidence which gives i^ise to all those 
convictions of the hwman mind which flow from 
experience and consciousness. It is the perfection of 
reasoning when the mind, by due process of argu- 
ment, cannot help coming to the conclusion to 
which. the argument would conduct it. By the uni- 
versal consent of mankind, there are intuitive and 
instinctive principles of belief that are not the result 
of any process of induction, because they are self- 
evident ; they are. top plain to be established by any 
such process ; nor is there anything more evident 
than they, themselves are, by which such process 
may be conducted.. The most conclusive argument 
does nothing more than unite propositions which are 



252 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

of questionable verity with those which are unques- 
tioned, and thus establish the unknown by logically 
identifying it with the known. But let it not be 
forgotten, that the nature of evidence is adapted to 
its subject. There is a difference between reasoning 
and consciousness ; nor is there any need of reason- 
ing, where we have the evidence of consciousness. 
There is a difference between demonstration and 
inspection; for inspection supersedes the necessity 
of demonstration. There is a difference too between 
coming to a logical conclusion, and making a prac- 
tical experiment. You may demonstrate the chem- 
ical properties of an acid, or an alkali, and thus 
come to a scientific and just conclusion of their - 
nature ; and you may taste them, and with equal 
certainty ascertain their properties by experience. 
There is likewise the evidence of sense, as well as 
the evidence of reason. When you see the light of 
the sun, you do not need any other proof that it is 
light ; when you hear sound, you do not need any 
other proof that it is sound. These subjects do not 
admit of any otheT evidence than the evidence of 
the senses. When you touch a pillar of marble, 
you know that it is cold and hard, because it feels 
so ; and this is all the evidence you ask for. The 
nature of evidence is adapted to its subject. 

This remark, and these illustrations of it, present 
the thought I wish to convey in relation to those 
convictions of the mind which flow from experience 
and consciousness. The mind of man has its senses 
as well as his body. It has a sense of beauty and 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 253 

deformity, of right and wrong. Particular classes 
of men have a quicker and more keen apprehension 
and sense of some subjects, than other classes. A 
poet has a keen and intuitive discernment of the 
beauties of poetry ; a musician, of the harmony of 
sounds; an artist, of the beauties of painting ; an 
architect, of the beautiful proportions of an edi- 
fice. No man judges of subjects of this sort by 
those laws of reasoning by which his conclusions 
are formed of the agreement of different parts of a 
mathematical theorem, or logical syllogism ; because 
there are other laws of his nature besides his reason- 
ing faculties, which are necessarily consulted. 

Now Christianity addresses itself, not to the intel- 
lect and reason of men merely, but to their moral 
nature — to their heart and conscience — to what may 
properly be called their spiritual senses. The man 
who has experienced its power, possesses this inward 
sense of its truth and reality. When the light of 
truth shines upon his mind, he knows it to be truth 
because he sees it. When the voice of God, his 
Maker, falls upon his ear, he asks for no other evi- 
dence that it is God's voice, than that he hears it. 
It is a well-known voice; there is no other voice 
like it, or to whose accents his mind so vibrates, 
and which produces the same inward emotions. It 
is the voice of the Good Shepherd, leading his flock 
in green pastures^ and by the still waters. ^^My 
sheep," says he, " know my voice, and follow me ; a 
stranger they will not follow, for they know not the 
voice of strangers." Good men love God, and love 



254 '^HE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

his truth. They read the Scriptures with a different 
state of mind from that with which they are read by 
others. They possess a '^ spiritual discernment of 
spiritual things "—a peculiar tact in judging of their 
excellence and beauty. They judge by the heart, 
as well as by the understanding ; and though in 
other respects they may be ignorant men, it is per- 
fectly rational that they should believe them to be 
the word of God, if for no other evidence, than that 
the truths they reveal have their counterpart in their 
own experience. The man who has tasted honey, 
as certainly knows it is SAveet, as the chemist who 
has tested its properties by scientific analysis. Plain 
and unsophisticated men believe vastly more truths 
on the evidence of their own experience, than they 
believe by the more tedious process of reason- 
ing. It is by the same sure process of experiment 
that they believe the truths of Christianity. They 
have tried it ; they have found that it accomplishes 
all that it professes to accomplish. The time was 
when they saw it in a different light, because they 
inspected it with a different state of mind. Since 
the love of God has controlled their, inquiries, they 
have a key, by which this cabinet of truth, may be 
unlocked, and its treasures explored. :'^ He that 
foz7e^A not," says the apostle, ^^knoweth not God, 
for God is love.^^ The conclusion is a most logical 
one. How should a man have any just conceptions 
of a Being whose nature is love] when himself 
knows nothing about love 1 No more than a purely 
malignant man knows what kindness is, or a purely 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. " 255 

revengeful man knows what a forgiving spirit is, or 
a blind man knows what color is, can a man who 
loves not, know what God is. Our perception of 
the moral character of our fellow men arises from 
sympathy; it is when heart meets heart, and love 
responds to love, that we see into one another's 
bosom. We know what men are, because we our- 
selves feel, or have felt like them. ^ Not until the 
heart of man corresponds to the heart of God, is God 
known. Christianity therefore speaks for itself, and 
carries its own evidence within it, wherever its 
power is felt. 

Nor is there any mysticism in this : it involves a 
principle of every day's concernment. The Deist 
replies, ^' This may be evidence that satisfies the man 
who feels it, but it is no argument with one who 
does not feel it ; I have read the Bible, and find no 
such effects from it; to my mind it is a book of . 
absurdities!" Let us test this objection, and see 
where it will end. Set the Deist to reason with an 
Atheist. The Atheist may ask him, ^' Why do you 
believe there is a God ?" The Deist replies, ^^ I see 
such evidences of design; such, beauty, grandeur, 
order, and harmony throughout the creation, that to 
my mind it is impossible that it should not have been 
the product of a designing Cause." The argument 
is good; but it rests on the Deist's perception of 
design, order, and harmony. What if the Atheist 
replies, ^'Your impressions of design and harmony 
are all superstition; I have never seen any such 
indications in the created universe : the evidence. 



356 1'HE BIBLE i\uT OF MAN. 

may do well enough for the man who feels it, but 
to my mind it is no evidence at all !" Here, then, 
the Deist is in a dilemma; he must give up his 
objection to the reasoning of the believer in Chris- 
tianity, which is founded on his perceptions of its 
excellence, or he must yield to the reasoning of the 
Atheist, against his own perceptions of the order and 
harmony in the works of creation. He must, upon 
his own principles, either become an Atheist or a 
Christian. We are bold, therefore, to affirm, that 
the spiritual perception by which every good man 
judges of the divine origin of the Scriptures, is as 
infallible as the perceptions of the Deist of the excel- 
lence of the religion of nature ; as infallible as the 
perceptions of the poet, or the artist, of the excel- 
lence af painting or poetry ; as infallible as th^ cor- 
poreal senses themselves, though acting in different 
spheres, and conversant with different objects. There 
is no stronger evidence; it is the evidence of con- 
sciousness. Let men read and obey the Bible, and ^ 
they will know that it is from God. The more experi- 
mentally and practically they become acquainted 
with it, and the more they are imbued with its 
spirit, the more competent are they to decide on 
the question of its divine origin from their own 
experience, and the more certainly will they decide 
according to truth. 

4. There is a fourth remark, which gives still addi- 
tional force to this argument. This testimony from 
experience is fortified by a great 7iti?nber of tvitnesses, 
and of great variety of external condition ajid nat- 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 257, 

ural character. Suppose a man of matured intelli- 
gence and unimpeachable veracity were travelling 
alone on an unfrequented path, and saw some unu- 
sual phenomenon in the heavens, which he could 
not account for, and which he himself could scarcely 
be persuaded was a reality. The more he inspects 
it, however, the more is he convinced that it is no 
delusion, and that his senses have not deceived him. 
Now it would not be surprising, if, in giving a nar- 
rative of what he had seen, even those who had the 
strongest confidence in his veracity should entertain 
doubts of his statement ; nor would it be unnatural 
for them to conclude, that he had been deceived by 
some optical illusion, or his own imagination. But if 
twenty, or fifty other persons, with whom he had had 
no. communication, should testify that they had wit- 
nessed the same phenomenon from other and differ- 
ent points of observation, there would certainly be 
morei reason to conclude that his narrative is worthy 
of being believed. But suppose that thousands in 
different parts of the land, and millions in different 
portions of the earth, should testify that they had 
simultaneously seen the same phenomenon, and that 
their descriptions of it should all agree ; suppose that 
among these millions there are persons of both sexes, 
of all ages, of all natural temperaments, of all classes 
of society, and of all degrees of intellectual cultiva- 
tion ; it most certainly would be in accordance with 
all the laws of evidence, and a perfectly rational 
thing, to conclude that his narrative is true. Yet 
is this but a faint illustration of the remark, that the 



258 THE •bible not of man. 

testimony for the divine origin of the Scriptures 
from experience, is fortified by a great number of 
witnesses, of great variety of external condition and 
natural character. 

All Christians have this internal and spiritual 
evidence. All testify to the reality of the change, 
wrought, through the instrumentality of the Bible, 
upon their own hearts ; the effect produced by it on 
their own minds and character is different from that 
produced by any other book in the world; nor is it 
possible for any other to produce the same moral 
transformation. It has disclosed to them the inmost 
recesses of their own bosoms, which nothing else 
could do. When polluted, it has made them holy ; 
when anxious and troubled, it has given them peace ; 
when miserable, it has made them happy. It has 
given the most accurate and vivid representation of. 
their sorrows and their joys, their burdens and their 
relief, their temptations and their succors, their 
doubts and their confidence, their fears : and their 
hopes, their unfaithfulness and their relentings, 
their conflicts and their triumphs ; which no book 
could give unless its Author knew what was in man, 
and is able to write out their own inward history. 

It adds too not a little to the force of their tes- 
timony, that this experience is felt in all ages of the 
world, from righteous Abel down to the present 
hour. It is found in all climates, and under all 
forms of government. It is the same in the cottages 
of Greenland, and in the valleys of the Vaudois ; in 
polished Europe, and in the savage wilderness ; on 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 259 

the continents, and in the islands. Oceans may sep- 
arate them ; natural causes, of every variety, may 
exert their appropriate influence upon their charac- 
ter ; ^but everywhere the same experience, resulting 
from the same cause, and producing the same con- 
viction that that cause is God, pervades them all. 
No matter what their sex, or condition — whether 
they be children, or men of gray hairs ; whether 
they be Cromwell and the Lady Jane Grey on their 
thrones, or Boaz and Ruth in the harvest field; 
whether they be Zuingle on the battle ground, or 
Howard in his counting-room, or John Newton pray- 
ing at the mast-head : — everywhere, and in all, 
thought corresponds to thought, and emotion to 
emotion. The same high-born and impelling force 
sends the same life-blood through every artery and 
vein of the spiritual body. And to give greater force 
still to their testimony, it is given with the same 
uniformity and explicitness by all classes of minds 
and temperaments. The gifted, as well as those of 
ordinary endowments ; the sanguine and the phleg- 
matic ; the cautious and reserved ; the rash and 
communicative ; the poet and the historian ; the 
sensitive artist, and the cool philosopher — all have 
the same spiritual sympathies, and speak the same 
spiritual language. 

There are but two ways in which this testimony 
can be repelled: the one is, by supposing the wit- 
nesses to he deceivers ; the other, by supposing them 
to be deceived. That they are all deceivers, will 
hardly be urged by the grossest infidel. They are 



260 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

those in whom infidels themselves have confidence, 
and whoj in all matters of secular trust, are confess- 
edly good men and true. That they are deceived, 
is scarcely possible. It might be possible with one, 
with ten, with fifty ; but can it be possible with 
thousands, with millions — unknown to each other, 
and between whom there is no intercourse, no con- 
nivance, no concert ; and whose sympathies are com- 
mon only, where they are derived from the Bible as a 
common source ? This is the magnet, which attracts 
all hearts with which it comes in contact — the 
spiritual magnet, which, as from a common centre, 
sends out its ten thousand electric wires, and by its 
telegraphic power holds communication with the 
most distant minds, simultaneously answering to the 
testimony first announced in heaven. 

Let it not therefore be wondered at, that Chris- 
tian men place strong dependence upon this spiritual 
and internal evidence. 

" A Christian dwells, like Uriel, in the sun ; 
Meridian evidence puts doubt to flight, 
And ardent hope anticipates the skies." 

[t is no preponderance of probabilities on which 
such a man rests his assurance of the divine origin 
of the Bible. It is not possible to persuade him to 
renounce it for any false religion, however plausible 
and captivating it may be, and however artful its 
seductions. 

This is emphatically the poor man's argument 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 261 

for the divine origin of the Sacred Writings. He 
may have no other evidence within his reach, bnt 
this satisfies him. Of the witness of antiquity, of logic, 
and history, and the fulfilment of prophecy, he may 
know nothing ; but this one thing he knows, that 
the Bible is to his own soul the wisdom of God and 
the power of God unto salvation. He has found it 
Avhat it professes to be : this is his argument. He 
feels that it was written on purpose for him : this is 
.his argument. It speaks to him as no other book 
speaks : this is his argument. Man could not speak 
thus : this is his argument. ^^ It were like telling 
him, that a creature spread out the firmament and 
inlaid it with worlds, to tell him that this proffered 
salvation is the device of impostors, or the figment 
of enthusiasts. He that believeth, hath the testi- 
mony written in his own bosom, not by those sen- 
sible exhibitions of Divine power by which the laws 
of nature are arrested, but by power equally great 
and wondrous, the omnipotent power of the Spirit 
of God. Others may admire the shield which the 
industry and the ingenuity of learned men have 
thrown over Christianity ; they may speak of the 
solid rampart cast up by the labors of ages, and 
pronounce the faith inaccessible, because history, 
philosophy and science, have all combined to gird 
round it the iron and the rock of a ponderous and 
colossal demonstration." But the fact most to be 
gloried in is, '' that the Scripture commends itself to 
the conscience, and experience bears out the Bible — 
that the Gospel can go the round of the world, and 



262 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

carry with it, in all its travel, its own mighty ere 
dentials." 

If the infidel does not confide in representations 
like these, if he does not give the argument any 
credence, it is matter of grief to us, but we cannot 
help it. There is no alternative for him betAveen a 
true, faith in Christianity, and living and dying with- 
out God, and Avithout hope; between cleaving to 
God's testimonies, and absolute despair ; between 
glorying in them, and being overAvhelmed Avith 
shame and everlasting contempt. 

" Ah me ! the laurell'd wreath that murder wears, 
Blood nurs'd, and watered by the widow's tears, 
Seems not so foul, so tainted, or so dread. 
As waves the night-shade round tlie sceptic's head." 

.^^For judgment am I come into this Avorld," says 
the great Author of the Bible, ^'that they Avhich 
see not, might see ; and that they Avhich see, might 
be made blind." Men Avho knoAv too much to be 
taught of God, must be left to their OAvn blinding 
delusions. 

From my heart do I pity the man, Avho shuts the 
eyes of his understanding against the intrinsic evi- 
dence Avhich this Book possesses of its heavenly ori- 
gin. Would he alloAv it to speak its OAvn facts and 
its OAvn doctrines, Avithout mutilation and in all their 
richness ; Avould he alloAv it to utter its OAvn prom- 
ises and its OAvn threatenings, its OAvn love and 
mercy, its OAvn heaven and its OAvn hell ; he Avould 
find that it is no more the Avork of man than the sun 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 263 

111 the heavens — no more a system of deception than 
the sun itself is a globe of ice. 

We part with the infidel, but we do not willingly 
part with him ; nor do Ave leave him in the spirit of 
imkindness. There are truths of the Bible known 
to himself, and demonstrated by his oion experience. 
We affectionately and earnestly invite him to a field 
of thought, which his own heart has not yet ex- 
plored. We bid him rove over it from flower to 
flower, and from its vernal promise to its rich har- 
vest ; pledging him, that if he does so he shall not 
lose his reward. Let him prove the Bible by giving 
all its truths the trial of experience. Let him taste 
the honey, as well as the gall : they are sweet foun- 
tains, pure fountains, clear as crystal, from the throne 
of God and the Lamb. 



264 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE BIBLE ACCORDANT WITH HUMAN REASON. 

Christianity would fain make converts of all 
classes of men. It would win and gain over the 
high and the low, the rich as well as the poor, the 
enlightened and thinking part of mankind, as well as 
the more uninformed. Men there are who regard 
it as making demands upon their credulity, which 
they feel themselves called on to resist. They look 
upon it as so repugnant to the first principles of rea- 
soning and the ordinary laws of credibility, that, in- 
stead of commending itself to human reason, it is an 
outrage upon common sense. We have no hope of 
rendering it acceptable to the hearts of such men ; 
while we may hope to rescue it from the charge of 
this monstrous absurdity. We are anxious to do so 
for the interests of truth, and because truth is the 
appointed means of salvation. 

It requires but little acquaintance with the world 
to perceive, that one of the causes which contributes 
to confirm a certain class of men in their disbelief, 
is the impression that the claims of Christianity can- 
not be vindicated by human reason; and that, in^ 
order to receive it, they must forego all the authority 
of dispassionate and fair argument. The object of 



ACCORDANT WITH REASON. 265 

the present chapter is to throw out several sugges- 
tions, with the view of obviating this difficulty, and, 
so far as we are able, setting the claims of the 
Christian religion, in this particular, somewhat in 
their true light. We have a strong conviction, that 
this religion is distinguished from all false relig- 
ions by its perfect agreement with reason. While 
all other systems of religion are deficient, or absurd 
and contradictory, this alone will bear examination ; 
the more severe the examination, the better does it 
stand the test. It is a perfectly rational thing. It 
makes no demands upon a senseless credulity, nor 
in approaching it are men solicited to leave their 
own minds behind them, or throw away their reason- 
ing faculties. 

By reason^ I understand that faculty of the mind 
by which it distinguishes truth from falsehood, and 
enables us to deduce truths that are unknown from 
those that are known. It is a faculty which exists 
in different power in different minds. There is a 
Mind in the universe which perceives all truth in- 
tuitively ; there are other minds which arrive at it 
by a slow and more laborious process. The act of 
reasoning consists in judging of the truth of proposi- 
tions brought before the mind, and inferring conclu- 
sions Avhich are so just and natural, and which so 
necessarily result from the propositions thus pre- 
sented, that they are intuitively perceived. In in- 
vestigating the question, for example, whether the 
Scriptures are of divine origin, we go back to these 
first and universal truths which thus lie at the foun- 

Bible not of Man. I Q 



266 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

dation of all reasoning ; which are sustained by an 
appeal to every man's consciousness, and which are 
believed because it is impossible not to believe them. 
If the Bible is true, the truth of it must rest on this 
solid foundation. On no subject whatever are reason 
and argument more fitly employed, therefore, than 
in investigating this momentous question. If its 
divine authority cannot be substantiated by fair rea- 
son and argument, or if reason and argument can 
overthrow it, it is no longer worthy of confidence. 

But it may not be forgotten, that, in order to 
reason justly on religious subjects, men must have 
the opportujiity and the means of reasoning. The 
truth of this remark neither requires, nor needs evi- 
dence in proof of it. Be it political, or legal science ; 
be it in the physical, or the more exact sciences ; in 
order to reason successfully, or even safely, men 
must not only possess the faculty and power of 
reason, but the opportunity and means of reasoning. 
These consist in a greater or less degree of knoiol- 
edge and information on the subjects about which 
they reason. A lucid argument on the subject of 
civil government requires some degree of acquaint- 
ance with the science of civil government ; a con- 
vincing argument on the law of bailments, or insur- 
ance, requires legal attainments ; the solution of a 
difficult problem in geometry requires no inconsider- 
able advancement in mathematical learning. So it 
is with regard to questions of a religious kind. As 
men cannot reason safely on any other subject with- 
out some degree of information on the subject about 



ACCORDANT WITH REASON. 267 

which they reasoiij it is indispensable they should 
have some degree of religious information before 
they can reason on the subject of religion. Reason 
is fitted to the perception of truth^ and must therefore 
have the opportunity and means of perceiving it. 
Whatever is true^ sooner or later falls in with the 
conclusions of reason. One mind may discover it 
later, and by a more tedious process, than another ; 
but when perceived, it is equally believed by both. 
Truth does not depend on our perceiving it ; nor 
is it less true Avhen perceived by other minds, 
though unperceived by our own. A religious truth 
that is worked out by the tardy process of human 
reasoning, is not the less true because it is intuitively 
discovered by a mind that is more exalted ; nor is it 
less true, though we receive it on the testimony of 
his perceptions. Nor, when it is reached by the 
process of reasoning, is it less true because it is first 
perceived by those who have superior knowledge 
and superior means of reasoning ; for when we our- 
selves come to possess the same knowledge and the 
same means, we shall perceive it as well as they. 
The more our sources of religious knowledge are 
increased, and the greater the variety of religious 
truths with which our minds are furnished, the bet- 
ter are we fitted to reason on the subject ; and if we 
follow the sound and true dictates of reason, the 
more confidently may we rely on our conclusions. 

There are several sources of information, and 
means and opportunities of reasoning, on religious 
subjects. One of these is the Book of Natnre, 



268 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

^' The heavens declare the glory of God, and tho 
firmament sheAveth his handy work." -'Ask now 
tlie beasts, and they shall teach thee ; and the fowls 
of heaven, and they shall tell thee. Or speak to the 
earth, and it shall teach thee ; and the fishes of the 
sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoAveth not in 
all these, that the hand of the TiOrd hath wrought 
this ?" One of them is the Book of Providence^ 
where, from facts in the history of the world, as well 
as events Avhich take place under our qavu observa- 
tion, important lessons are learned concerning God 
as the great Governor, and men as his responsible 
subjects. These instructions are valuable in propor- 
tion to their plainness and extent. They are so, 
because they utter the voice of God; they are a 
Tevelatio7i of his will ; they constitute some of the 
forms in which he himself addresses truth to the 
minds of his creatures. Nor is there anything that is 
imreasonahle in such a revelation as this. It is rea- 
sonable to suppose that the creation should speak for 
its Creator, and that the government which he is 
exercising over his creatures, by his providence, 
should speak to them in language of no equivocal 
import. I have yet to learn that any class of infidels 
have called in question the reasonableness of such a 
revelation. 

But what if, in addition to such a revelation, it 
has pleased God to make a more full disclosure of 
his mind and will? Is there anything unreasonable ' 
in this hypothesis ? The Bible professes to be such 
a revelation : is there anything unreasonable in what 



ACCORDANT WITH REASON. 2b9 

it reveals? Let us direct our thoughts a few mo- 
ments to these two inquiries. 

Is it unreasonable that such a revelation should 
be made, in addition to the disclosures of nature and 
providence? It is the province of reason, not to 
originate truth, but to discover it. Ca7i it discover, 
from these sources alone, all that is necessary for 
men to know ? Can it discover it with that cer- 
tainty that satisfies the philosophic, or to that extent 
which satisfies the popular mind? Socrates and 
Seneca did not think so — the civil and popular the- 
ology of the pagan world bears uniform testimony 
that ^^the world by wisdom knew not God." To 
the great purpose of man's existence as a moral and 
immortal being, the works and providence of God 
have spoken in vain. So far as they regard the 
Divine counsels respecting our fallen race, they have 
spoken in vain. If it were reasonable that He who 
is the light of the universe should not leave this 
lower world in darkness that may be felt ; if it were 
reasonable that the Father of mercies and the God 
of the spirits of all flesh should stretch forth his hand 
to rescue his falling children from the bottomless 
abyss ; it is reasonable to look for a more abundant 
and hopeful revelation than is contained in his works 
of creation and providence. '-Let reason count the 
stars, weigh the mountains, fathom the depths — the 
employment becomes her, and the success is glori- 
ous. But when the question is, ^ How shall man be 
just with God?' reason must be silent, revelation 
must speak." 



270 THE BIBLE KOT OF MAN. 

If J then, there is nothing unreasonable in the 
hypothesis that God should give men a more full 
revelation, is there anything unreasonable in the 
revelation itself, which professes to have God for its 
Author ? In replying to this inquiry, several dis- 
tinct thoughts deserve consideration. 

All will agree, that a religion that has God for 
its Author, cannot be unreasonable. Whether we 
can discover it to be so, or not, it must be a reason- 
able religion. Better were it to impeach our own 
reason, than his. Nor is this altogether a '^ begging 
the question," or ^^ reasoning in a circle." To 
exalt reason above its own place, is to debase it : to 
set the human in rivalry with the Divine, is to make 
it contemptible. The Bible claims to be a reason- 
able religion ; to require a ^^ reasonable service ;" to 
reveal ^' the words of truth and soberness." Reason 
in creatures is essentially the same with reason in 
the Deity ; save that, while their conclusions are 
arrived at, for the most part with difficulty, his are 
intuitively made ; and while with them reason is 
finite, and liable to err, in the Divine mind it is 
unerring and infinite. The most reasonable Being 
in the universe cannot be the author of an unreason- 
able revelation. The God of heaven does not need 
to be instructed, and dictated to by human reason : 
human reason needs to be tutored and schooled by 
Divine wisdom. Whether the system of truth and 
piety revealed in the Scriptures, does or does not, 
in our judgment, coincide with sound reason, we 
have the highest evidence the nature of the case 



ACCORDANT WITH REASON. 27 i 

admits, that it does so in fact. This, however, is 
not the ground on which w^e rest the reasonableness 
of the religion revealed in the Scriptures. The 
question, whether this religion is or is not intrinsi- 
cally contrary to reason, is not out of place. 

I remark therefore, further. It is no objection to 
the reasonableness of this religion, that it C07itains 
truths which human reason itself could never have 
discovered. There are those who hold that nothing 
is reasonable, save that which human reason origi- 
nally discovers. But is it so, that there is nothing 
known to the minds of angels, or to the mind of 
the Infinite Deity, that is unknown to men? If 
human reason could have devised the system of 
truth and grace found in the Bible, there had been 
no need of a supernatural revelation. It is not 
denied that truths are here revealed that could never 
have been known but for Divine teaching. The 
utmost poAvers of the human mind fail in the effort 
to discover them ; nor, untaught of God, could they 
ever have proved them to be true. Unaided reason 
had not the remotest suggestion, or hint of some of 
them, until they were disclosed by light from heaven. 
Imagination herself did not venture a faint fore- 
shadowing of them. Human reason had no creed, 
no fixed opinions, in relation to problems which the 
Bible solves to the satisfaction of the merest tyro 
in the school of Christ. The solution of them haa 
not its antetype in the human mind : it was no- 
where, save in the mind of the Deity, and in the 
deep counsels of the eternity where he dwells. 



273 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

We say to those persons who have persuaded 
themselves that human reason could have accom- 
plished all that was necessary for man's salvation, 
that the moral history of our world, nay, the history 
of the universe shows, that when once any race of 
creatures have fallen from their primeval integrity, 
it is beyond the limits of reason, whether in the 
human or the angelic mind, to devise a method by 
which they may be restored to the Divine favor. 
The angelic race who fell, with all their lofty powers 
of intellect, have not, during the progress of tedious 
centuries of suffering, discovered any way of escape. 
It is perfectly obvious that, on the apostacy of our 
first parents, all expectation of recovery from the 
efforts of their own reason was a forlorn hope. Nor 
has it been in the power of their descendants, dur- 
ing the progress of six thousand years, in any part 
of the world, to ascertain from the lights of reason 
and nature, whether God will forgive sin. Human 
reason has had full and unobstructed opportunity to 
make the discovery — among all nations and every 
clime, in ages of ignorance and barbarism, and in 
ages of great intellectual cultivation and vigor ; and 
the result shows, that the most acute philosopher, 
and the degraded child of the forest, are alike igno- 
rant of those truths which bring relief to the solic- 
itude and despondency of man when contemplating 
his character as a sinner. The various religions of 
man's devising are everywhere the religions of pen- 
alty, of fear : the basis of them all is a deep and 
inwrought impression of the awful majesty of God 



i 



ACCORDANT WITH REASON. 273 

as the Avenger. It is perfectly accordant with the 
dictates of reason, therefore, that a revelation that 
meets the wants of man should itself be, not the 
creature of reason, but of God. 

As a consequence of this position, it is altogether 
reasonable J that a religion, revealed from heaven, 
should contain truths that are above and beyond the 
power of human reason to comprehend. Infidels and 
rationalists object to the Bible, and aiSrm that it is 
contrary to reason, because it contains m^ysterious 
truths. But why should it be thought unreason- 
able, that a system of truth, which is confessedly 
beyond the power of man's devising, should contain 
truths which convict human reason of imbecility? 
What is there irrational and illogical in the position, 
that the wisdom of man is confounded and baffled 
before ^^ the deep things of God ?" We affirm, that 
it is most reasonable to believe that a revelation from 
God contains some such mysterious features. It is 
for such truths among others, if not for such truths 
mainly, that such a revelation is needed. Now that 
it reveals them, so far from being any objection 
tojhe divine origin of the revelation, they remain 
among the evidences of its divine origin. They con- 
stitute one of the proofs that such a revelation is 
consistent with the highest reason. They are truths 
that are unwelcome to the proud and selfish heart of 
man ; truths which show that human reason, with all 
its self-confidence, has its boundaries ; and at the same 
time truths which reason, unless strangely recreant 
to her own prerogative, is constrained to honor. 

BibU not of Man. 12* 



274 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

There are truths above the discovery of human 
reason, and which, when revealed, reason compre- 
hends ; and there are also those which, when re- 
vealed, are above its comprehension. There are 
more of the former than the latter ; while the latter 
are, if possible, of greater importance, because thoy 
are so intimately connected with the most important 
practical truths of Christianity. The doctrine of the 
Trinity, and of the Incarnation, are mysterious and 
incomprehensible truths. They are revealed as mys- 
teries ; they are facts ^ the existence of which is af- 
firmed by the testimony of Him who cannot lie, and 
believed on that testimony. But there is nothing 
contradictory in the statements we find of them in 
the Bible ; there is nothing in these statements that 
contradicts any other truth which the Scriptures 
reveal ; nor has it ever been shown, nor can it be, 
that they are inconsistent with reason. Though 
man's reason does not comprehend them, the rea- 
son of the Great God comprehends them ; and for 
all that we know, in a future and more advanced 
state of being, they may be comprehended by crea- 
tures. In a revelation from the incomprehensible 
God, it is not unreasonable to look for some incom- 
prehensible truths. His nature leads us to look for 
them ; his works lead us to look for them ; his pro- 
vidence leads us to look for them : it was to be ex- 
pected that the Bible would contain them. ^^ Who 
by searching can find out God ? who can find out 
the Almighty to perfection ?" It were a fault, rather 
than an excellence in the Scriptures — it were in ill 



ACCORDANT V/ITH REASON. 275 

keeping with the revelations God has made of him- 
self elsewhere, did they contain no mysteries. Did 
they not contain them, infidels themselves would 
have laid hold of this fact as proof of imposture. It 
is no impeachment of the Divine wisdom, or good- 
ness, that the Bible contains them ; nor are they the 
less reasonable, because they cannot be explained. 
We have no right to claim of God, that all that he 
reveals should be divested of incomprehensibleness. 
Such a curiosity were unhallowed; nor could any 
limit be assigned to it, if once indulged. Angels do 
not comprehend all that God has revealed ; and why 
should man be dissatisfied? 

That no man can rationally believe facts which 
he does not comprehend, is, of all positions, one of 
the most unreasonable and absurd. If it is reason- 
able to believe facts which he cannot comprehend, 
it is reasonable to believe truths which he cannot 
comprehend ; for truth is but the veracious statement 
of facts. The objector himself believes a multitude 
of such truths, and regulates his conduct by them 
every day. Some of them he perceives intuitively : 
they are, indeed, too plain to be capable of proof 
by any logical process. He cannot explain the very 
union between his own body and mind ; nor the ac- 
tion of his thoughts upon his will ; nor the influence 
of his will upon his outward conduct ; nor the man- 
ner in which his own mind holds intercourse with 
other minds, any more than he can explain how 
God was manifest in the flesh, or how his Spirit acts 
upon the soul in fitting it for heaven. He cannot 



276 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

escape from the region of incomprehensibleness, go 
where he will. A revelation that instructs him in 
the nature of the incomprehensible God ; in his 
counsels and government ; in the method of his in- 
comprehensible grace, and in an incomprehensible 
eternity ; bears a relation to realities so vast and im- 
measurable, that it is constantly bordering on mys- 
tery. It is incomprehensible, for the very reason 
that it is true — truth that must be incomprehensible, 
because it is lofty and sublime as its Author. These 
are the truths, in the contemplation of which ^' they 
in heaven veil their faces with their wings." You 
cannot dishonor these wondrous truths, without dis- 
honoring their wondrous Source. You cannot dis- 
card them without discarding his whole revelation ; 
without tearing away the foundations of human hope ; 
without uprooting the truth which sustains the 
branches and the fruit of immortality. Those very 
truths of the Bible, therefore, which to the slight in- 
spection of the rationalist appear the most objectiona- 
ble to human reason, are truths which human reason 
might well presume such a revelation would contain. 
But we cannot establish the position we have 
taken in the present chapter, without directing our 
thoughts somewhat more minutely to some of the 
great truths and principles which the Bible reveals^ 
for the purpose of seeing if they do not coristitute a 
reasonable system. If we mistake not, there are 
grounds and reasons for these truths sufficient to 
satisfy every sober and dispassionate mind. They 
are at war with no previous truths revealed by the 



ACCORDANT WITH REASON. 277 

lights of nature and reason, and inscribed on the 
consciences of men ; but are, on the other hand, in 
perfect harmony with them all. It is indeed a pre- 
sumptuous service which we assign to human reason, 
to sit in judgment upon the truths which the uner- 
ring Oracle of the universe has revealed, and whose 
^^ ways are past finding out." But for the sake of 
the argument, we will give the infidel this vantage 
ground, and ask him to look into the Bible, and in- 
dicate to us the truths against which human reason 
rebels. 

The leading truths, and those on which all the rest 
depend, are few, and are very intelligibly revealed. 
They are, the sovereign right of the Great God to 
give law to his creatures — the apostate character and 
lost condition of man as the transgressor of that law — 
the great remedy which the Gospel provides for the 
pardon and justification of all those who truly re- 
ceive it — the provision which it makes for their per- 
sonal holiness and sanctification — and the unalterable 
retributions of the eternal world. Let common sense 
inspect these doctrines ; let reason investigate them : 
let philosophy analyze them — ^let her intellectual 
resources be taxed to the uttermost ; and they can 
find nothing in them that is not worthy of having a 
place in their creed. They all commend themselves 
to our honest convictions of truth and right ; we 
have but to state them truly, and we may safely 
make the appeal to all intelligent beings, if they are 
not conformed to human reason. 

The sovereign right of God to give law to his 



278 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. | 

creatures, belongs to him from his original and im- 
derived supremacy. Reason decides intuitively, that 
it is the prerogative of a superior to give law to his 
inferiors. This is the prerogative of all civil rulers, 
whatever be the form of government under which 
this prerogative is exercised. And if men, who have 
no natural, but only a borrowed, delegated and con- 
ventional supremacy, possess this right, much more 
does the Infinite God possess it, who is by nature 
supreme, and whose power, wisdom, goodness and 
rectitude qualify him, and him alone, to be the uni- 
versal Lawgiver. 

The doctrine of human apostacy is rather stated 
and illustrated in the Bible, than revealed; for the 
history of man demonstrates it ; human reason, how- 
ever reluctantly, confesses it to be true ; and though 
she strives to view it in more flattering lights than 
those in which the Scriptures represent it, she is 
constrained to behold it in all its ugliness, and in 
the dark shadows of scriptural truth. The conse- 
quent ill desert of man is an unavoidable inference 
from his sinfulness, deduced as certainly by reason 
as by the Scriptures. Reason decides, that no wise 
and good lawgiver may overlook the violations of his 
law. There is no such thing as law without an 
expressed, or implied penalty. The force and sanc- 
tion of law consist in penalty, and without it the 
lawgiver has no authority. Conscience, too, every- 
where recognizes man's ill desert as the consequence 
of his sin ; and no sooner does he sin, tlian there 
arises in his bosom a sense of ill desert, and an 



ACCORDANT WITH REASON. 279 

indestructible conviction of his obnoxiousness and 
obligation to punishment. 

Men in all ages of the world have adopted the 
principle, that the wrath of Heaven must be appeased 
for past offences. Their altars and their sacrifices, 
with one voice, bear testimony to the necessity of 
some propitiatory libations to the offended Deity. 
What, then, is there unreasonable in the method of 
redemption by Jesus Christ ? Reason surely does 
not divest the Supreme Lawgiver of his pardoning 
power. Every lawgiver has a natural right to exer- 
cise this prerogative ; and he has also a moral right 
to exercise it, wherever it can be done without con- 
flicting with the best interests of the government. 
Whether the Great Lawgiver could wisely and right- 
fully exercise the pardoning power, through the 
mediation of another, who should himself make sat- 
isfaction to Divine justice, is a question for the dis- 
cretion, the wisdom, the rectitude of the Lawgiver 
to decide. He has decided it in favor of such a 
commutation of punishment, as shall rescue the guilty 
without destroying the innocent substitute. That 
there should be no act of injustice to the substitute, 
everything on his part is perfectly voluntary. And 
that there should be no injustice to the government, 
the substitute himself is of such high consideration 
in the court of heaven, that the ends of justice are 
not trifled with, but fully answered by his substitu- 
tion in the place of the guilty. Now, why should 
human reason revolt at this ? Remote as it is from 
the ordinary apprehensions of mankind, does not 



280 * THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

reason decide that very important ends are gained 
by it, which could not have been gained by the 
absolute and sovereign exercise of the dispensing 
power? Are there not manifestations of love and 
goodness which could not have been made without 
it ? Is not such a procedure more conducive to the 
ends of justice, more expressive of the evil of sin, 
better adapted to strengthen veneration for the law 
and promote the interests of good government, than 
either the sealed and certain ruin of the entire race, 
or the arbitrary exercise of the pardoning power 
without any atonement for transgression? Human 
governments cannot exist without the great principle 
of representation ; the parent represents his child, the 
guardian his ward ; moneyed associations their con- 
stituents : why should this arrangement be impugned 
in the Divine government ? Men forgive for the 
love of another ; and so does God. Human govern- 
ments remit penalty through the intercession of men 
of merit, men in power, and men of high and com- 
manding influence ; and so does God, through the 
intercession of his Son. Men accept the responsi- 
bility of one man for the defalcations of another ; 
and so does God. Men receive an amendment for 
wrong, freely offered by another than the wrong- 
doer ; and so does God. If the Roman Fabius, when 
condemned to death by the dictator, was pardoned 
because the Roman people implored that he might 
find mercy for their sakes, what is there unreasona- 
ble in the fact, that sinners of our race should be for- 
given for the sake of Christ ? If the rigid execution 



ACCORDANT WITH REASON. 281 

of the penalty had been ruinous to the entire race, 
and clemency thus exercised would give authority 
to the Divine government, why should reason oppose 
such a method of mercy ? Why may not the Divine 
government accept some competent substitute, if 
some kinsman Redeemer can be found, who is too 
much the friend of justice to see sin go unpunished, 
and who is, at the same time, too much the friend 
of man to see him sink under the stroke of justice ? 
Why, I demand, may not such a substitute be 
accepted, when he not only freely offers himself to 
bear the mighty burden, but is able to bear it ; and 
from the low grave, to which it crushes him, to rise 
with new laurels on his brow, with his rescued vic- 
tims on his breast, penetrated by his love, reformed 
and restored, loyal subjects of the Divine kingdom, 
affectionate and dutiful children of the Divine fam- 
ily ? Is this an unreasonable redemption ? Were 
all the wisdom of angels and men collected in one 
vast assembly, to scrutinize this method of mercy, 
with all its wonders, could its reasonableness be 
challenged, or its fitness be called in question, or its 
moral influence impugned? 

This great truth is connected in the Scriptures 
with the provision they make for the personal holi- 
ness and sanctification of the fallen. And what is 
there in this that is unreasonable ? Is it not a fact, 
that creatures depraved and degenerate as men are, 
need a radical transformation of character in order to 
be happy ? Reason and philosophy urge the neces- 
sity of this change, as well as the Bible. 






283 'i'HE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

Is it the decision of the Bible, that no means and 
no motives are effectual for the production of this 
change ? Such is the rigid conchision of reason and 
experience, as well as the decision of the Bible. 

Is it the decision of the Bible, that the Author of 
this change is God himself? Why should he not 
be ? Does reason decide that he renews the face of 
the earth, and crowns the year with his goodness ; 
that he opens his hand, and satisfies the desire of 
every living thing ; that he is the Father of the rain, 
and begetteth the drops of the dew ; and does it 
question if he is the Author of a spiritual character 
in fallen man ? Does reason decide that every good 
gift, and every perfect gift, is from the Father of 
lights, and that this highest and best gift has no such 
divine origin ? 

Or is it the decision of the Scriptures, that this 
heaven-imparted holiness is the fruit of the Sav- 
iour'' s deaths and that it is his love which constrains 
men to cease from their hostility to God, and to 
return to his Father, and their Father, in his name ? 
Is it unreasonable that this Great Sufferer should 
have some reward — some fitting recompense ? And 
what so fitting, so reasonable, as to have gained the 
objects of his redemption, and when once gained, 
that ^^ nothing should pluck them out of his hand ?" 

We will not pursue this specification of particu- 
lar truths. They are all of a piece. Human reason 
need not take the alarm ; she may be satisfied with 
them. The understanding, the conscience, the heart, 
the whole soul may be satisfied with them, as every 



ACCORDANT WITH REASON. 283 

way worthy of God, as furnishing the highest proof 
of his wisdom and love, as reading the most instruc- 
tive and striking lessons to the universe, as announ- 
cing glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and 
good will to men. There is no folly, no weakness, 
no wildness, nor extravagance here. Wondrous as 
these truths are, they are too intelligible to be irra- 
tional ; too rational not to interest the strongest 
intellect. There is a simplicity and grandeur in 
them that rebut all the cavils of a cold and sceptical 
rationalism, and carry conviction to thoughtful minds 
that they are of God. They make common cause 
with all that is intelligent in the universe. They 
form as truly the religion of philosophers, as of the 
common people. Some of the greatest minds the 
world has known, minds as vigorous and well-fur- 
nished, minds which science has been proud to honor, 
have revelled in the truths of the Bible, and been its 
triumphant defenders against all the invasion of its 
malignant foes. So far from being a shallow system, 
or making any claims on the credulity of men, it 
sounds the note of alarm against all belief on slight 
evidence, and is sure to gratify, by every fresh de- 
mand it makes upon human intelligence. 

If from the truths of Christianity, Ave pass to the 
consideration of the duties it enjoins, we shall find 
that these also are founded in the highest reason. 
With the exception of its positive institutions, they 
are all founded in the nature of the Deity, in the 
nature of man, and in the relations which he sustains 
towards God and his fellow men. There is no form 



284 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

of iniquity, be it open excess, or hidden wickedness, 
on which it does not frown. In every conflict 
between right and wrong, however the wrong may 
be sanctioned by custom, influence, or laAv, it is 
always found on the right side. It has the only 
strong hold in the universe upon the morals of indi- 
vidual men, and upon the moral sense and habits of 
human society. It silently inweaves itself with all 
the relations of social and public life, everywhere 
proclaiming the laws of rectitude in the ears of the 
prince and the peasant. It has no pious frauds ; no 
fabulous, or magic power ; no falsehoods, by which 
the terrors of superstition are excited, or allayed ; but 
urges all its obligations simply by the authority and 
love of its Author, and the allurement of its truths. 
It regulates the outward conduct by first regulating 
the heart, and implanting in the inner man the fear 
of God and the love of Jesus Christ. It dimin- 
ishes what is imaginary, and gives power and pro- 
minence to what is real ; it throws into the back- 
ground the vanities of time, and brings forward in 
bold relief the realities of eternity. It controls, not 
by impulse and passion, but by the strength of 
principle. 

The duties it prescribes are all intelligible, com- 
prehensively expressed, and easily remembered. Nor 
is there one of them that is not right in itself, and 
of the happiest tendency. It requires men to love 
that which is lovely, and hate that Avhich is odious ; 
to neglect the unimportant, and pursue the impor- 
tant. It enforces every obligation of dependence and 



ACCORDANT WITH REASON. 285 

gratitude, of nature and of law. It gives its sanc- 
tion to everything which reason sanctions. Reason 
instinctively revolts at every violation of its laws, 
as an unnatural perversion of what is right. Any 
other system of duties would at once be felt to be 
irrational. Notwithstanding all the power which sin 
exerts over the human mind, in spite of itself, hu- 
man reason recoils from any moral direction different 
from that given to it by Christianity. 

There is a great difference between the happi- 
ness enjoyed with the approbation of conscience, and 
that which is felt without, or against it. There is, 
no doubt, pleasure in sinning : the hope of unlaAvful 
gratification constitutes the fatal charm. But there 
is an immense abatement of this happiness, arising 
from remorse and fear: the consciousness of guilt 
often grows to such intensity, as more than to coun- 
teract all the pleasure. This is the moral arrange- 
ment of the Bible ; and can there be an arrangement 
more reasonable, more Avise ? The language of such 
an arrangement is, that its Author, solicitous as he is 
for the happiness of men, is mainly solicitous that 
they should be happy through the possession of a 
virtuous, moral character ; and that their happiness 
itself should be the fruit and one of the expressions 
of their excellence. 

I ask, then, if Christianity be not accordant with 
human reason ? May not the man of this world 
deem it the proudest eminence to which his reason 
can aspire, to sit at the feet of this heavenly Teacher, 
and bow without gainsaying to its every decision ? 



286 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

It is only false and corrupted reason that fears the 
Bible, or that the Bible frowns upon. It inculcates 
no unreasonable doctrine, insists on no unreasona- 
ble duty, aims at no unreasonable end. It forms the 
most rational and consistent scheme of belief, and 
morals, and hopes. 

Let it be compared with the systems of ancient 
philosophy, and no doubt can remain as to which is 
accordant with reason. Let it be compared with the 
fictions of paganism ; with the fables of its poets, and 
the representations of its historians ; and while, in its 
best forms, paganism will be found a disgrace to 
human reason, this wonderful Book will be found to 
be no dishonor to the intelligence of the ^^God only 
wise." Thousands of years rolled over the pagan 
world, and its most gigantic minds in vain attempted 
to invent a religion which reason could approve. 
Never was experiment more fairly, or more fully 
made; never was failure more complete. Reason 
covers her face, and retires ashamed from the inspec- 
tion. 

With very little pretext may men boast of their 
reason, who reject the Bible. The more this book 
is read, and the better it is understood, the more 
rational will it appear. If men of lofty intellect 
have disbelieved it, it was not owing to their supe- 
rior intelligence. Intelligence — enlightened, unbi- 
assed intelligence — cannot see that to be irrational 
which is not so. On a multitude of subjects, the 
reason of these very men has been satisfied with a 
tithe of the evidence that estabhshes the reasona- 



ACCORDANT WITH REASON. 287 

bleness of the Scriptures. That there are instances 
in which intelhgent men have rejected it from the 
want of evidence which to them is inaccessible^ it is 
very difficult to beheve, so long as the Bible itself is 
accessible. 

With the Bible in their hands, men may he safely 
left to the sound deductions of reason. To one of 
two results reason will lead them. Legitimately 
followed, it will make them Christians, or Atheists. 
If the Bible is not from God, I see not what is 
from him. An inadequate cause is no cause. I 
believe there is a God, because I find in the world 
such a book as the Bible : demonstrate to me that 
this book is not of God, and I cannot stop short of 
blank Atheism. God lives in vain, if he has not 
spoken in the Bible — or rather, he does not live — 
there is no God ! Away, away with this thought 
of blasphemy ! ^^ The Lord liveth, and blessed be 
my Rock !" There is reality, there is truth, there is 
reason in this Book of God. ^^ Call now, if there 
be any to answer thee ; and to Avhat other wilt thou 
turn?" 



288 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 



CHAPTER X. 

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 

If there be the weight in the preceding consid- 
erations which we attach to them, the Bible is not 
of man, but the work of God. Penned as it was 
by men, with powers and passions like our own, 
yet was it not in the ''words which man's wisdom 
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." In 
tracing, in the foregoing imperfect argument, those 
developements of a cause which is more than human, 
may we not affirm, '' This is the finger of God !" 
Every distinct consideration has its separate degree 
of importance ; while, in the aggregate, they form a 
moral argument in favor of Divine Inspiration, which 
I trust may be regarded as deserving a place in the 
considerations of reflecting men. 

1. There are many thoughts on which it would 
be pleasant to dwell in this concluding chapter, the 
first of which relates to the nature and importance 
of the argument from the Bible itself The thought 
of living within the empire of the God of heaven, 
without any clearer indications of his mind and 
will, as to our duty and final destination, than are 
furnished by the lights of reason and nature, ceases 
to be painful, only when it is forgotten and lost 



I 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 289 

sight of. The more it is present to the mind, and 
the more it is dwelt upon, the more it is full of 
agony. It is no marvel, that some of the wiser 
and more thoughtful heathen of antiquity expressed 
the hope, that the time would come when light 
Avould dawn from heaven, and dissipate the dark- 
ness and uncertainty that enveloped them. 

A revelation from God is indispensably necessary 
to make known his will. The only question is, 
Where is this revelation contained ? We affirm that 
it was given at various times and in diverse ways ; 
and that it was finally committed to writing, and is 
contained in what are called the Books of the Old 
and New Testaments. We maintain, that since the 
completion of this volume all immediate revelations 
from God have ceased ; and that there is no imme- 
diate revelation of his will, except that which is here 
expressed. 

We mean by inspiration^ in the first place, that 
we have things here revealed that are directly mat- 
ters of faith ; and that with respect to these, both the 
matter and the words were inspired, and the writers 
of them are very justl}^ called the amanuenses of the 
Holy Ghost. In the next place, we have revelations 
of Scripture facts handed down by written tradition, 
and collected from other authentic sources, to which 
the writers were divinely directed , and in the pre- 
sentation of which they were enabled, by the Divine 
Spirit, to distinguish the false from the true. And 
in the third place, we have a revelation of things, or 
facts directly perceived — seen and heard by the 

Bible not of Man. ]3 



290 T^iE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

writers themselves ; and in recording which the 
Divine Spirit assisted their memories, so that they • 
could put down what they did really see and hear. 
In one word, the God of heaven has given such a 
direction to the writers of this volume, that he is 
responsible for the Book itself. 

The proof that this record is the word of God. 
is principally of two sorts ; external, and internal : 
the first is testimony drawn from facts, and not im- 
mediately from the Bible ; the second is evidence 
drawn directly from the Bible itself. This internal 
evidence, or the evidence found exclusively within 
the book itself, is separate from the external, and 
forms a distinct topic of consideration. So far as it 
regards our argument, it matters not who wrote the 
sacred Books, or whether they were received as 
inspired at the time when they first made their ap- 
pearance ; our object has been to show that the 
writers of them, whoever they may have been, 
were inspired men. I 

The process is a simple one by which we ascer- 
tain what are the works of God, and what is the 
work of man. There are works which can be per- 
formed only by the Infinite and Omnipotent Creator. 
We have but to look upon them, and we know that 
they are his : our conclusion is one which it is not 
in the power of a sane mind to resist. The human 
mind cannot conceive them to be the work of man. 
We think it has been shown that this is true of the 
Bible ; that it is a production that never could have 
had man for its author : the supposed cause is iiiade- 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 291 

quate to the effect. There is no other book, that 
man might not have written — this is the work of 
God, proved to be such by the same evidence as 
proves that the sun in the firmament was brought 
into existence by his creative power. We look at 
the sun, and know that man could not have created it ; 
we inspect the Bible, and our convictions are equally 
strong, that no unaided human pen could have 
w^ritten those wondrous pages. The substance of 
our argument in favor of its divine origin is just 
this, and nothing more. A thinking man, ship- 
wrecked on a desolate island, and who knows 
nothing about this Book save what the Book itself 
contains, when once he understands it, and feels its 
power, could not resist the conviction that it is what 
it claims to be — the word of God. 

If God has revealed his w^ill to men, he must 
have associated with that revelation itself convinc- 
ing evidence of its divine origin. There must be 
marks upon it that indicate its celestial birth. The 
strength of the argument in favor of its heavenly 
parentage, must be in the Book itself, rather than in 
anything which is out of it — in those internal indi- 
cations which it bears of its Divine Author, rather 
than in those external processes by which it may be 
traced to the heaven whence it came. The human 
mind requires stronger proof of its superhuman 
origin, than any such historical research can furnish. 
However strong those convictions of its divine 
authority which are produced by an induction of 
the historical argument, those convictions are stronger 



293 1^'^E BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

which result from an inspection of the Scriptures 
themselves. We do not deem it enough, that the 
sacred writers themselves profess to be inspired ; this 
is important testimony, but, aside from what they 
wrote, it is not decisive ; and it is only in connection 
with what they wrote, that it is entitled to confi- 
dence. On a question where such momentous inter- 
ests are at stake, we may look for the best evidence 
which the nature of the case admits. And what is 
this, if not the Book itself ? If the Book itself 
does not discover the hand of God, nor utter the 
voice of God, nor reveal the heart of God, tl^iere is 
no testimony whatever that it is not the work of 
man. Just as holy men of old, when God revealed 
himself to them by the ministry of angels, or by 
audible voices, or in visions, or by Urim and Thum- 
mim, had the unwavering assurance that he himself 
spoke to them, and not another, may men have the 
conviction that it is God himself, and not another, 
who addresses them in his word. It must, in the 
nature of the case, be a self-authenticated revelation. 
It is with grateful admiration of the condescending 
goodness of God, that we contemplate the fact, that 
he has rendered the evidence of divine inspiration 
accessible to those, who, although they cannot read 
extensively, can and do read the Bible, and discover 
in it indubitable evidence of its heavenly som'ce. 
This is emphatically the argument of the un- 
learned — the poor man^s argument — hidden perad- 
venture ^' from the wise and prudent, and revealed 
unto babes.'' 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 2^3 

It often happens that many who are first in human 
learning, are last in the knowledge of God. The 
religion of the Bible is the religion of the multi- 
tude ; not the religion of the schools. A babe in 
Christ discovers in it what is never discovered by 
the pride and vanity of human learningj however 
great its originality and profoundness of research. 
The schools of pagan philosophy were among its 
earliest and most virulent opposers, because it ob- 
scured their literary fame, and shook the proud 
fabric of their intellectual ambition. '^ I cannot 
dispute for Christ," said a heroic female martyr, ^^ but 
I can die for him." Those who live by the Bible, 
can die by the Bible : though amid burning fires, 
they repose upon its promises as on a bed of roses, 
while, amid the fragrance of its unearthly atmo- 
sphere, their spirits return to him who gave them. 

The time was, when men of learning and men 
of faith gave greater prominence to this inherent evi- 
dence, than to the external testimony. I know not 
from what causes it has happened — unless it be that 
the defenders of Christianity have been driven to the 
efi'ort by the learning and researches of infidelity, as 
well as stimulated by an honest consciousness of 
their own superior learning and researches — that such 
prominence has been given by Christian writers to 
this latter department of inquiry. The principal 
writers in favor of a supernatural revelation, more 
especially since the attacks made upon it by Hume 
and Gibbon, have directed their attention mainly to 
this external testimony. In so doing, they have not 



294 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

only been successful, but triumphant ; the battery 
of the enemy has been silenced, and the strong fast- 
nesses in which he trusted taken by storm. So far 
as my information extends, Lardner, Michaelis, 
Jones, Paley, Chalmers and Stuart, to say nothing 
of others, have furnished a mass of historical testi- 
mony to which infidels have not ventured to give 
anything which they themselves consider a reply : it 
stands unassailed — a conclusive refutation of the 
cavils of infidelity derived from historical sources. 
Yet after all that may be said in favor of the his- 
torical argument, it is the argument from the Book 
itself which most crowds the system of infidelity. 
A distinguished infidel, when once asked, ^' How is 
it, that the Bible is so far superior to all other books 
that it can be read over and over, a thousand times, 
and still retain all its freshness ;" and '^ why no other 
book like it was ever written ?" replied, ^^ Because 
there is not room in the world for two such books !" 
Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, the author of three dis- 
tinguished treatises in opposition to Christianity, and 
whom Dr. Leland, in his '^ View of Deistical Wri- 
ters,'' declares to be ^^ the most eminent of them that 
had appeared in England ;" urges in his volume, De 
Religione Laid, this strong objection against the 
historical argument : '^that in order to arrive at any 
certainty in these matters, it would be necessary for 
the common people either to learn all languages, to 
read all the celebrated writers, and to consult all those 
learned men that have not written — a method which 
is manifestly absurd and impracticable — or else to 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 295 

have recourse to a supreme judge of controversies, 
appointed by common consent." Fas est ah hoste 
doceri. There is great weight in these concessions, 
coming as they do from infidel lips. 

The argument from the Bible itself will also, 
if I mistake not, be found to be that on which the 
champions for the historical argument do themselves 
place the greatest reliance. It was eminently true 
of the Reformers, that they wrote on this subject 
like men instructed out of the Bible. That God 
alone is a sufficient witness of himself in his word, 
and that the Scriptures carry with them a self- 
evidencing power, was the teaching of Calvin, of 
Stapfer, of Vanmastricht, of Witsius, of Turretin, of 
Owen, of Beveridge, of Baxter, and a multitude of 
others who were the most successful defenders of 
Christianity. The doctrine of the Presbyterian 
church, beautifully and even eloquently expressed 
in her standards, is in the following language : ^^ The 
heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doc- 
trine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the 
parts, the scope of the whole which is to give glory 
to God, the full discovery which it makes of the 
only way of man's salvation, the many other incom- 
parable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, 
are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence 
itself to be the word of God ; yet, notwithstanding, 
our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible 
truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward 
work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and 
with the word in our hearts." It will be recollected 



296 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

also, that the Scriptures themselves, in addition to 
the argument from miracles and prophecy, largely 
insist on this department of evidence. They make 
their appeal to themselves : they challenge men to 
'' search them," to ^^ prove them." The evidence is 
not far off, because the ^^ word is nigh." The light 
which they display declares by its own luminous- 
ness its Mighty Author : 

" Some great Maker, 



In goodness and in power preeminent." 

2. Another thought has reference to those ivho 
reject the divine authority of the Sacred Writings. 
The infidel affirms that this Book is not from God. 
What are his reasons for this bold and unsupported 
assertion? Is it, that the book itself is not wise 
enough to have God for its author ? — or that it is 
not sufficiently kind and benevolent ? — or that it is 
an unholy book ? — or that its doctrines are such that 
they must, or might have been the commandments 
of men ? — or that its religion bears too strong a re- 
semblance to those of man's devising ? — or that its 
revelations are inconsistent and contradictory? — or 
that its system of truth, and duty, and salvation, are 
not fitted to a race fallen by their iniquity, soon to die, 
and their immortal spirit to return to the God who 
gave it ? — or that experience shows that it has no 
dwelling in the bosoms of the men to whom its truths, 
its promises, and its blessed hopes are directed ? — or 
that it is an outrage upon reason and common sense ? 
We have endeavored to make it appear, that the con- 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 297 

verse of all these strange hypotheses is the only posi- 
tion that can be substantiated by all ingenuous and 
fair reasoning. The burden of proof, we confess, does 
not lie in the first instance upon the infidel, to show 
that this Book is not divinely inspired : it lies upon 
believers in it to show that it is so. But it should 
startle the unbeliever, that he finds it so herculean a 
task to prove that it is not so. It should at least 
lead him to doubt of his infidelity ; to question if he 
be not building upon a false foundation ; to look 
around him, and see if he has any foundation to stand 
upon save empty air. 

It is impossible for him to know that the Scrip- 
tures are not the word of God ; and it is very possi- 
ble for him to know that they are his Avord. There 
is a strange fatality attending a certain class of men, 
in soberly persuading themselves that this Book is 
an imposture, or is more likely to turn out an impos- 
ture, because they themselves reject it. It requires 
but a single flash of thought, or rather a single flash 
of conscience, to dissipate this delusion, and to dis- 
cover the dense folds of darkness Avith which such a 
mind euAvraps itself. 

Upon the sceptic's own showing, his own con- 
clusions are doubtful. He is not sure that the vol- 
ume he rejects is not the word of the Living God. 
And what a fearful, what a tremendous state of mind 
is this, to be entertained for an hour — to be persisted 
in, to carry up to the chamber where he dies, to 
attend him to his hereafter, and there to melt away 
and be dissolved under the strong and steady light 

Bible not of Man. | 3* 



298 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

of eternity, till it is transmuted and transformed into 
absolutej perfect despair ! 

Infidels would do well to look somewhat into 
the causes of their unbelief, and to institute a rigid 
scrutiny into the variety of concurrent circumstances, 
some, or all of which have contributed to that state 
of mind, and that cast of moral feeling, which has 
arrayed them against a Book so full of light and 
love. Is it that their reason is scandalized by it ? or 
is it that their pride is wounded, and that their desire 
of intellectual distinction, and their boasted superi- 
ority over the common opinions of mankind, are hum- 
bled ? Is it their benevolence that the Bible offends, 
and have they persuaded themselves, that their no- 
tions are of any great importance to the present and 
future well-being of their fellow men ? Is it their 
piety that is offended ; and is it that their own sys- 
tem draws the cords of moral obligation cldser and 
tighter than the Bible, and gives a negligent con- 
science less repose, and more abundantly multiplies 
the inducements to practical godliness? Is it their 
love of truth that is assailed by this Book of God, 
and is it solely for the truth's sake that they oppose 
its claims? An honest reply to these and similar 
inquiries, might reveal causes of unbelief, of the ex- 
istence and power of which the unbeliever himself is 
not fully conscious. Such a reply were a truthful 
comment on the declaration, ^^ Light is come into 
the world, and men have loved darkness rather than 
light, because their deeds are evil.^^ 

There is no need of reminding infidels of the 



I 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 299 

obligations they are under to a character corres- 
ponding to the claims of their infidelity. We take 
leave to recommend to them to make less of their 
speculations, and more of their character and con- 
duct, as the safest and surest way of coming at a 
satisfactory and tranquil conclusion of the great 
inquiry, Whether the Bible be, or be not, of divine 
origin. Amid the advantages and privileges of a 
Christian land, it is impossible for them to shut out 
the light, or disclaim the solemn and affecting obli- 
gations in which they are involved. If there were 
nothing but their access to the Sacred Scriptures, 
this privilege alone is sufficient to leave them with- 
out excuse. Let them but deny ungodliness and 
worldly lusts, and live soberly, righteously, and godly 
in this present world ; and there will be an end to 
their infidelity. Let them seek light from the Father 
of lights, and love from the God of love ; let them 
be punctual and devout in the duties of religion; 
and their night of darkness will be superseded by a 
bright and cheerful day. Let them exemplify the 
moral influence of the truth, in their internal spirit 
and external deportment ; let them do God's will ; 
and they shall know of the doctrine of the Bible, 
whether it be of God, or the device of an impostor. 
It requires no sacrifice of truth for them to make 
this experiment ; no compromise of principle, no 
wrong, or even unphilosophical concessions. 

It is not hazarding much to assert, that the firm- 
est and most intrepid and inflexible advocate of 
infidelity will find little room for doubt, when he 



300 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

once consents thus to prove and bring to a practical 
test the truth of God's holy word. Experience 
shows that the opposite course is the true way to 
make infidels, and to confirm them in their infidelity. 
Men reason themselves from a Scriptural to a loose 
Christianityj from early imbibed religious principles 
to those that are irreligious, from an intellectual 
conviction of the divine origin of the Scriptures 
to an utter rejection and contempt of them, by the 
strong and irrepressible desire to relax the bonds of 
moral obligation, and to sin without remorse and 
apprehension. They first reason themselves into 
doubt and uncertainty, and then into absolute in- 
fidelity, because they are hostile to the truth, and 
dread the sense of responsibility which the truth 
imposes. 

" Virtue could see to do what virtue would 
By her own radiant light. 
He that has light within his own clear breast, 
May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day; 
But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts, 
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun : 
Himself is his own dungeon." 

It is a fact of great importance to be discovered and 
appreciated, that wickedness, in every form and de- 
gree, has a tendency to obscure the light of truth, 
and diminish the force, both of the internal evi- 
dence and the external testimony by which the 
truth is supported. ^' Every one that doeth evil 
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his 
deeds should be reproved.*' Nor is it any marvel, 



I 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 301 

when we consider the rectitude of God's govern- 
ment, that he should send upon such persons '^ strong 
delusions, that they should believe a lie ; that they 
all might be damned who believe not the truth, but 
have pleasure in unrighteousness.^^ 

3. Another remark suggested by the kind of 
evidence on v/hich our argument has rested, relates 
to a long -cherished J oft-repeated^ and "tnost unioar- 
rantable doctrine of the church of Rome^ in regard 
to the authority of the Sacred Writings. Among 
the many Roman Catholic principles the influence 
of which ought to be counteracted, is the bold as- 
sertion, that the fact that the Bible is the word of 
God rests upon the testimony of the, Papal church ; 
and that the canonical authority of the sacred 
Books is proved and handed down from her alone, 
as the infallible oracle. In all the principal contro- 
versies between Protestants and Romanists, both in 
Europe and in this country, her high boast is, that 
the appeal of Protestants to the Bible is a virtual ap- 
peal to her ; because, as she is pleased to say, it is by 
her decisions that the various books which compose 
it were ascertained to belong to the divine record. 

There is so little force in this reasoning, or rather 
in this statement, that it scarcely deserves to be 
called sophistry. For the sake of argument, let this 
claim be conceded. It does not follow, that the 
divine origin of the Scriptures rests upon her deci- 
sion : nor that her decision does anything more than 
indicate where the inspired books are to be found. 
What if the Council of Trent had first invented the 



303 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAx^J. 

mariner's compass ; it would not follow that the ten- 
dency of the magnetic needle to the pole depends on 
her invention. A certain mathematician of Greece 
produced the evidencCj that in any triangle the sum 
of all the angles is equal to two right angles ; but it 
does not follow that the Grecian philosopher origi- 
nated this truth, and that the angles specified were 
not equal to two right angles before. If the Papal 
church has decided correctly what books belong 
to the Sacred WritingSj it was upon evidence that 
existed independently of her decision, and because 
they were antecedently of divine origin. She did 
not assign to them their high origin: — that they 
would have possessed, even though discarded by 
Rome. When by an induction of facts she satisfied 
herself that God had already given them that high 
place and character, she announced her conviction 
and her decision to the world. The fact itself, that 
God has given a revelation of his will, was a fact 
before she announced her conviction of it ; her con- 
viction rested on the fact, and not the fact on her 
conviction or decree. Rome was never more at 
fault than in this pretension to argument. She first 
proves the authority of the church of Rome from the 
Scriptures, and then the authority of the Scriptures 
from the church of Rome. Both claims cannot be 
valid. For if the authority of Rome depends upon 
the Scriptures, the authority of the Scriptures does 
not depend upon Rome ; or, if the authority of the 
Scriptures depends upon Rome, the authority of 
Rome does not depend upon the Scriptures. 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 303 

But this is not all we have to suggest against 
these arrogant claims. If the argument for the di- 
vine origin of the Scriptures which has been pre- 
sented is a valid one, its claims do not in any degree 
rest upon the decisions of Rome, but upon the inher- 
ent evidence of the Book itself. We may respect 
the decisions of councils in this matter, but we do 
not need them. We see that this Book is the word 
of God for ourselves ; we have a right, independently 
of Rome, independently of all the world, to examine 
and judge of the evidence by which its divine origin 
is supported. When, with a right spirit, we inspect 
the Book itself, our perceptions of its superhuman 
origin are absolutely irresistible. A child of five 
years might as well be supposed to have been the 
architect of Solomon's temple, as any uninspired 
man, or set of men to have been the authors of the 
Holy Bible. Compared with the productions of the 
unlettered fishermen and tent-makers of Judea, the 
greatest productions of the human mind on religious 
subjects were like the earth when it was without 
form and void, in contrast with this fair creation as 
it rose in order and beauty at the command of its 
Creator. When we read the Scriptures, we discover 
in them that of which human wisdom, human good- 
ness, human purity were not the authors. In an age 
when there are not wanting those who would under- 
mine the deep foundations of confidence in God's 
word, and for its own intrinsic and superhuman 
excellence substitute the decisions of men, we have 
deemed the argument which has been presented in 



304 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

the preceding pages, not out of place. With the 
men who now live, and those who come after us, 
the struggle with Rome is not over. The turning 
point m the controversy with her respects the word 
t)f God, as the only infallible rule of faith and prac- 
tice. Without the internal evidence of its divine 
origin, Rome might have the vantage ground : with 
this evidence, the vantage ground is ours. 

4. Another subject on which the preceding argu- 
ment may legitimately have an important bearing, 
respects the province of reason in all matters of 
religious faith. We have no quarrel with those 
who advocate the right of private judgment. It 
belongs to man, from the constitution of his intel- 
lectual and moral nature. The faculty of judg- 
ment was given in order to be exercised ; the right 
to exercise it is implied in the exhibition of all the 
evidences by which the truth is established ; it is 
implied in the doctrine of personal responsibility, 
and in the nature of religion as a personal thing ; 
divine revelation itself makes an appeal to it ; while 
for the exercise of it men are accountable to God 
alone. ^^ To their own Master they stand, or falL- 
Who art thou that judgest another man's servant ?" 
But while we say these things, we are not to forget, 
that thinking error to be truth does not make it 
truth ; and that it is only when men come to right 
conclusions, that they may not only think they are 
right, but know themselves to be so. The Holy 
Scriptures are the only safe directory. Antiquity 
cannot guide us ; for if it does, it is quite as likely 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 305 

to lead us into error as into truth. Tradition cannot 
guide us ; it is too intangible and indefinite — we 
know not where to look for it. Human reason, 
with all her boasted powers, and all her rights of 
private judgment, cannot guide us — she herself 
needs a guide. 

We do not deny, that human reason has its appro- 
priate province in every question of religious truth ; 
bat its limits are reduced to the single effort of ascer- 
taining what God has revealed. It is not a teacher, 
but a pupil : its province is not to dictate, but to learn, 
and submit to the dictates of unerring wisdom : its 
proper employment is, not to decide what the word 
of God ought to contain, but simply to find out what 
it does contain. It is absolutely shut up to the bind- 
ing force of instructions revealed from heaven. No 
matter how fearlessly men come to the word of God, 
so long as they come honestly ; not to pronounce 
judgment on what God has revealed, but to form 
their judgment by the divine testimony. I said, no 
matter how fearlessly : perhaps the language is too 
strong. ^^ The meek will he guide in judgment; 
the meek will he teach his way." The understand- 
ing is darkened by sin; and it were no marvel, if 
the inspired writers do not pay the profoundest 
homage to human wisdom. ^^ Open thou mine eyes, 
that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law,'' 
is the most reasonable language in the world for man 
Avho is a worm. It is the true characteristic of a 
great mind. The truest and the profoundest rea- 
soner on religious subjects is the truest and the pro- 



306 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

foundest listener to the teachings of heavenly truth. 
You may not alter ; you may not expunge ; you 
may not supply ; you may not wrest from its true 
import a single truth which God, the Lord, has 
uttered. '^ If I, or an angel from heaven, preach 
any other gospel, let him be accursed !" Here 
reason may rest with confidence, as the ultimate 
ground of authority. Desert this record, and all is 
the darkness of midnight — the abyss of Atheism. 
Reason is no longer rational than she is satisfied 
with a record that has the endorsement, the seal 
and superscription, of Eternal wisdom. 

5. Another remark from the preceding discus- 
sion, relates to a common error of modern Ratiojial- 
ists. There is a class of minds, in which the spirit 
of inquiry supersedes the love of truth. Truth 
already attained holds a less important place in their 
estimation than that which is doubtful and sought 
after. Whether there be more of egotism than the 
love of truth in this state of mind, they who cher- 
ish it can perhaps best decide. It is no uncommon 
thing to boast of light that is new, when it is only 
new to us ; while the incense that is offered on the 
altar of a proud and self-complacent egotism, may 
indicate the ignorance, as well as the vanity of the 
worshipper. 

The love of investigation merely, where it is not 
under the influence of a humble and docile spirit, is 
much more likely to give the thoughts a wrong, 
than a right direction. There are those who are 
'' ever learning, and never come to the knowledge 



i 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 307 

of the truth." They live upon intellectual excite- 
ment, rather than upon intellectual gratification. 
'^If/' says the German philosopher Lessing — ^^if 
God held in his closed right hand all truth^ and in 
liis left the single, ever active impulse after truth^ 
though with the condition that I should wander in 
continual error, and should say, Speak ; choose ! I 
would humbly point to the left hand and say. Father, 
give : — pure truth is for thee alone !" There is 
ensnaring beauty in such a representation as this, 
and there is seeming modesty ; while in reality it is 
but an ingenious, though transparent covering of a 
heart that ^^ loves darkness rather than light." Such 
is the sceptic's love of truth, but not the Christian's. 
The intellectual excitement fostered by doubt, hesi- 
tation and inquiry, is not enough for him. To think, 
to search, to be ^' driven about by every wind of 
doctrine," is not enough for him. It is not the labor 
merely, but the fruit that he desires : it is not intel- 
lectual excitement, but intellectual repose : it is not 
doubt that he is seeking after, but certainty. He is 
a lover of truth — that never alters. If he can but 
learn the truth, he will listen thoughtfully to it, in 
whatever guise it approaches him. He will sit hum- 
bly at the feet of his Divine Teacher, or gather it 
from the lips of babes. A single truth, stamped with 
the impress of Heaven, outweighs with him all the 
vain pride of the mere philosopher and rationalist in 
his researches. The spirit of inquiry is not one 
which he wishes to see suppressed, or even embar- 
rassed ; but he would that it were always wisely 



308 THE BIBLE NOT OF xMAN. 

directed, and made subservient to truth. And where 
can it be indulged so freely, where is there such scope _ 
for it, as in '^ the depth of the riches both of the wis- 
dom and the knowledge of God ?" God has wisely 
bestowed upon us this ever active impulse after 
truth, but with no condition that leads us to error. 
Nay : while he opens his left, he also opens his right 
hand, dispensing with exuberant bounty truth, pure 
truth, from the eternal habitation where he dwells. 

The thought has more than once been suggested, 
that the evidence by which the divine origin of the 
Sacred Writings is established, is, after all, nothing 
more than that which results from the manifold com- 
bination of strong probabilities in its favor. The 
writer well remembers the impression which this 
thought made upon his own mind in early life, when 
he first met Avith it in a published discourse of a 
justly celebrated theologian of our country. '-No 
Christian,'' says this writer, ^^ can certainly kjioio that 
the Gospel itself is of divine inspiration." It were 
no marvel if this single remark, as dangerous as it is 
unwarranted, had made as many unbelievers, as the 
able and unanswerable discourses of the same author 
on ^^ The Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy" 
have made believers. Whatever depends on probable 
evidence only, can never produce the conviction of 
certainty. The most that can be said of all proposi- 
tions of this sort is, that there is a strong probability 
in their favor ; and that they are rather suspended 
over the fancy as an airy vision, than recognized as 
immutable truth. I confess I shudder at the thouglit 






CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 309 

that we have no higher evidence in favor of the 
divine origin of the Scriptures. Is it so ? Is it so, 
that nothing more can be affirmed of the divine legja- 
tion of Moses and the prophets, Christ and the apos- 
tles, than that it is iii a very high degree probable 1 
Is it no more than probable that there was such a 
personage as Jesus Christ, ^^who was delivered for 
our offences, and rose again for our justification?" 
Did Paul reason thus, when he said, '^I know^lxovn 
I have believed?" Did John reason thus, vv^hen he 
said, '^ We know that when he shall appear, we shall 
be like him?" Perish all such scepticism as this! 
Trust it, who may ; but God forbid that the faith of 
his people should rest on such a questionable basis ! 
The highly respected and venerable author himself, 
to whom we have just referred, in defiance of his 
theory, could not help contradicting it, whenever his 
own ardent and strong mind kindled with the impor- 
tance and responsibility of his theme. Comparing 
Christianity with infidel philosophy, he says, ^^ Here 
is no uncertainty^ no waverings no tossing on the 
billows of anxiety, no plunging into the gulf of des- 
pair ; your path is a straight and beaten way, and 
were you way -faring men and fools, you need not 
err therein." 

Every proposition within the circle of moral 
science, is either certainly true, or certainly false : 
otherwise we know, and can know nothing about 
it. We may conjecture much, and hope much ; we 
may be strongly persuaded ; but we know absolutely 
nothing : our minds must necessarily be in that state 



310 TliE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

of suspense which is the medium between absolute 
certainty and absolute unbelief. And this state of 
suspense admits of as many degrees as there are 
between the lowest and highest probability. If such 
were the basis of our reasoning in regard to the 
divine origin of the Sacred Writings, it would be 
impossible for us absolutely to affirm, or deny the 
truth on this great question. We might have a pre- 
vailing opinion one way or the other, which ap- 
proaches the nearest step to certainty ; but we must 
still have some degree of doubt. There is nothing 
desirable in such a state of mind as this on any sub- 
ject ; much less on the great subject involved in the 
preceding discussion. Unless it be from a strong 
desire to divest himself of all moral obligation, or 
from a vain desire of intellectual distinction, or from 
the dread of credulity, or from the love of error, no 
man ever prefers ignorance to knowledge, doubt to 
certainty. On some subjects there is no necessity 
for such a state of mind, because there is no foun- 
dation in the nature of the subjects themselves for 
uncertainty. Nor is there any foundation for uncer- 
tainty in the nature of the subject we have been con- 
sidering. The proposition that the Scriptm^es of the 
Old and New Testaments are of divine origin, is 
either true, or false — it is either certainly true, or 
certainly false. It cannot in its own nature be a 
doubtful question. It may be doubtful in the mind 
of the inquirer; but it is not so in itself, and in 
reality. There is truth and certainty on this subject, 
as well as every other, and nothing but trutli and 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 311 

certainty. The admission of the opposite hypothe- 
sis unsettles the Avhole subject ; nor can those who 
admit such an hypothesis, gain anything more than 
to keep truth and certainty at a distance from their 
own minds, and the minds of others, for a time only. 
Certainty exists, and it is impossible to reason it out 
of existence ; while every effort to do so is as logically 
absurd as it is practically unwise. 

It is certainty that we have been seeking in the 
foregoing pages. We hope we have sought it honest- 
ly and modestly. But we have no desire to disguise 
the fact that Ave have sought it. Those who doubt on 
this subject, do so where there is no room for doubt- 
ing. No man is called on to believe that the Bible is 
not of man, merely because there is a strong prepon- 
derance of probabilities that man was not its author. 

6. We may not overlook, in these concluding ob- 
servations, the great importance of established prin- 
ciples 071 all religious subjects. The truth cannot be 
too often repeated, nor too deeply felt, that men are 
no better than their principles. There are excep- 
tions to the remark, that where a man's principles are 
good, his character is good ; but it is always true, that 
where his principles are bad, his character is bad. 
Right principles lie at the foundation of moral obli- 
gation. No man is one thing in his principles, and 
another, and the opposite, in his sense of duty. Con- 
science is governed by light and truth ; and just so 
far as the character is controlled by conscience, it is 
controlled by principles. The character of men has 
its sources and foundation. The principles of a man 



313 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

lie at the foundation of his character, and influence 
his thoughts, his emotions, his conversation, his de- 
portment. ^^ Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor 
figs of thistles." Nor may they, with any more sem- 
blance of reason, look for a virtuous and good char- 
acter from principles that are vicious and bad. Moral 
rectitude, is conformity of heart and life to truth; 
wickedness, is conformity to error. The devil first 
corrupted men, and corrupts them still, by inducing 
them to adopt false principles ; and in all the efforts 
of his mercy to reclaim them, the great means which 
the God of truth makes use of are principles of the op- 
posite character. In all the ordinary affairs of human 
life, men are controlled by their principles. The poli- 
tician is controlled by his principles of government ; 
the merchant, by his principles of commerce ; the ju- 
rist, fey his principles of law ; the scholar, by his prin- 
ciples of literature and science. It is impossible that 
men, in the exercise of their rational faculties, and a 
due discretion, should be controlled in any other way. 

The same may be said of principles that are relig- 
ious, or irreligious. No matter when, or where, or 
how they are imbibed, they exert an influence ; just 
as wheat produces Avheat, or tares produce tares, 
whether sowed by the agriculturist, or deposited 
by the wind or the birds of the air. Nor is the ap- 
propriate influence, either of good or bad principles, 
prevented or impeded by the sincerity with which 
they are received ; but rather secured by it, and ren- 
dered more permanent. 

Nor is this abstract speculation ; it is the state 



A 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 313 

ment of facts. History, both sacred and profane, 
shows them to be facts ; biography shows them to 
be facts ; observation and consciousness demonstrate 
them to be veritable reahties. The true character 
of the pagan world — the true character of the fol- 
lowers of Mahomet — the true character of papal 
Rome — of Protestantism, of Infidelity, and of Chris- 
tianity, is to be traced to the respective principles of 
each of these distinct systems of religion. Princi- 
ples are nothing without their practical nature and 
tendency. What is virtuous character, if not the 
application of virtuous principles to the heart and 
life ? and what constitutes vicious character, if not 
the application of vicious principles to the heart and 
life ? Good principles generate good institutions, 
good habits ; evil principles, those that are evil. Let 
good principles hold dominion over the minds of 
men, and virtue and true piety will progressively 
win their way over our lost world; while, in the 
same proportion in which loose and evil principles 
hold dominion, will virtue languish and wickedness 
triumph. 

And not only may this result be looked for as 
the natural and necessary sequence of the effect 
from the cause ; but it is the matter of deliberate, 
moral calculation. Men imbibe and cherish good 
principles, with the deliberate and express design of 
being influenced by them ; and when they pursue a 
wrong course of conduct, they fall back upon wrong 
principles to justify them. They intend to be gov- 
erned by their principles, be they good or bad. No 

Bible not of Man. 2 4 



314 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

man attributes his character to accident or contin- 
gency ; nor does he, for any considerable time, ever 
suppose that his principles will be ineffectual and 
abortive. If men act from good principles, it is 
because they mean to do so ; and if they act from 
bad principles, while they may not acknowledge 
that their principles are corrupt, they would rather 
be driven to this acknowledgment, than to the con- 
fession that they act from no principle at all. It is 
for the most part the deliberate purpose of men, that 
their principles shall affect their character and con- 
duct. Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, and Frederic 
of Prussia, rejected the Christian religion ; and their 
object in so doing was to fortify themselves in their 
sworn confederacy to subvert all religion and estab- 
lished order, and introduce the reign of universal 
licentiousness. David Hume lived and died an 
avowed sceptic and Atheist ; and though the annals 
of scepticism do not furnish a more favorable exam- 
ple of moral reputation, his life and death show that 
he intended his conduct should be governed by his 
principles. His life was devoted to unsettling all 
fixed principles of belief in the human mind ; to 
subverting the whole system of moral obligation ; 
to obliterating a sense of God's authority from the 
conscience, and to inculcating the innocence of the 
greatest crimes ; while his dying hours were occupied 
at the card table, and the thoughts of his dying pil- 
low devoted to his insipid raillery of the doctrine of 
a /uture state and final retribution. 

The infidelity of the present age has learned a 



I 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 315 

better lesson than to hold the Bible in contempt. It 
is a part of its policy to award to it great excellence, 
a sound morality, and a benign influence on the 
social relations. It regards the writers of it as far 
in advance of their contemporaries in moral science, 
and as deserving higher consideration than the most 
eminent of ancient sages. But it does not award to 
it the infallibility of unerring wisdom, nor listen to 
it as the oracle of God. It is a more specious infi- 
delity than that of Voltaire and Paine, but it is 
infidelity still. It has strong pretensions to an im- 
partial rationalism ; it has the semblance of ingenu- 
ousness and candor ; it invests itself with the broad 
mantle of a professed charity ; but it pays its court 
to unblushing infidelity, and reduces the Book of 
God to a level with the teachings of uninspired men. 
It has, too, a scholar-like modesty. It would not be 
too confident ; decently suggesting, that strong and 
tangible proof is excluded from this sphere of relig- 
ious inquiry. 

Now we deem it important to possess better and 
more established principles on this great subject than 
any of these. This is not the reception the Sacred 
Writings demand. Their credentials are of such 
force and authority, as to afi'ord no room for this 
hesitating state of mind. If they are a cunningly 
devised fable, no matter how soon, or how decidedly 
they are exploded ; if they are true, every man ought 
to be satisfied of their truth, and hold them fast to 
^he end. 

We cannot appreciate too highly the importance 



316 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

of firm and established principles on this great sub- 
ject, and more especially in strong and well-culti- 
vated minds. Truth is easily distinguished from 
error, when men are once willing to see the differ- 
ence ; and when they are once willing to see this, 
they will no longer regard it as of little consequence 
what they believe. ^' Buy the truth and sell it not," 
is the kind counsel of heavenly wisdom. Nothing 
is too dear to part with for the truth. Pride, vain 
reason, prejudice, interest, sloth, sin, the favor of 
men, are all of little worth compared with the truth 
of God. Buy it at any rate ; part with it for no- 
thing — ^not for ease, nor fame, nor gold, nor life. 
Love the truth, adorn the truth, honor the truth ; 
be witnesses for the truth, and the truth shall make 
you free. 

7. It were also a natural deduction from the series 
of observations presented in this volume, and not to 
be omitted, that the Sacred Writings deserve the 
most ser^ious and patient study, and affectionate 
regard. It is the Great God who speaks to men in 
these writings. It is God your Maker, your Law- 
giver, your Redeemer, your Judge. It is the voice 
of your Father who is in heaven, uttering truths 
which no human intellect ever conceived ; dictating 
them by his own Spirit, and subscribing them with 
his own name and seal. He who inhabits eternity, 
and fills and occupies it as his own dwelling-place, 
here makes discoveries of the eternal world to the 
view of mortals, as momentous as the heaven where 
he dwells. Every other book is fiction and romance, 



CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 317 

compared with this. If there be an altar where the 
human intellect may bow in profoundest reverence, 
and where human learning may find laurels that 
never wither, it is at the altar of revealed truth. 
These wondrous writings have done more to extend 
the field of human thought, than all others combined. 
Men of genius and learning, men who have been dis- 
tinguished for superior strength of mind, for elo- 
quence of tongue and pen, for brilliancy of imagina- 
tion and acute powers of disquisition, on opening the 
Bible, have found themselves to be children ; and 
been constrained to honor its ever-blessed and ador- 
able Author. 

" Learning has borne such fruit in other days 
On all her branches ; piety has found 
Friends in the friends of science, and true prayer 
Has flowed from lips wet with Castalian dews." 

Names that are the adornment of their race, and in 
the highest and most enlightened classes of society, 
have identified their ripest honors with their apolo- 
gies for the Christian faith. 

This one Book will live when the remembrance 
of all other books is passed away. It will go down 
through the successive generations of men ; and 
when the earth shall be burnt up, and the heavens 
shall pass away with a great noise, it shall remain 
inscribed on the hearts of an exceeding great mul- 
titude, which no man can number. It shall go up 
to the bar of God, shall enter into the gates of the 
heavenly city, and there be hailed as the charter of 

14^ 



318 THE BIBLE NOT OF MAN. 

its immortal joys. Precious, precious, thrice precious 
Book of God ! It can cheer when every other com- 
forter is far away. It can visit the chambers of 
solitude, and counsel and comfort on the bed of lan- 
guishing. It can soothe griefs which nothing else 
can soothe. It holds up the torch-light of heaven's 
tenderest mercy in the midst of the dark valley ; it 
is the comforter of the otherwise comfortless, wip- 
ing away the tear that trembles in the eye which 
fixes its last look on things below. Who that does 
not deliberately purpose to live without God, and 
without hope ; that is not prepared to seal the war- 
rant that consigns him to a hopeless death and an 
undone eternity ; can live in the allowed neglect of 
the Holy Scriptures ? '^ Hear ye, and give ear ; be 
not proud, for the Lord hath spoken." That man 
shall not lose his reward, Avho is a diligent and hum- 
ble student of God's word. We do earnestly invite 
the sons and daughters of men to this rich field of 
thought. We bid them rove over it from flower to 
flower, and we bid them dig for its hidden treasures. 
It has running streams, and sparkling fountains, and -> 
deep wells, at which he who drinks shall find living 
water. 

It were a fearful state of mind to believe in the 
divine origin of this holy Book, and neglect its great 
salvation. This is one of those facts in the moral 
history of man, which his extreme depravity alone 
can account for. The simple truth that the Bible is 
the word of God^ one would think, were enough to 
rouse every man who reads it from spiritual apathy, 



COJMCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 319 

and fix impressions on his mind that would render 
him solemn as eternity. Yet is there not one of all 
the truths here revealed, but is sober verity. It is 
even so. The God of truth declares it. There is 
no delusion in the Bible. No, there is no delusion 
in the Bible. Its great God, its holy God, its just 
God, its God of love and mercy, is the greatest of all 
realities. Its vast and immeasurable eternity, where, 
though millions of ages roll away, they shorten not 
its duration, is too an unwasting reality. Its all 
gracious. Almighty, and Infinite Saviour too, is the 
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 

O ye, who are fallen by your iniquity, and to 
whom this wondrous redemption is revealed anc 
offered in the Bible — ye, who are so insensibly ana 
rapidly borne on the broad and rapid torrent of time 
to that eternity, where the friends of this Bible am 
this Saviour will encircle the throne, and where the 
enemies of this Bible and this Saviour will have lost 
a throne, never to be regained ; is it to that blissful 
presence that you are bending your course ? or to 
that mournful exile ? That eternity is at no greai 
distance ; you stand upon its brink : it is but a little 
moment and you pass into it. Time is too shorty 
life too precious, to disregard the counsels of this 
Bible, to trifle with this eternity, and this salvation. 
O perverse, O senseless world ! that can be blinded 
thus, and thus infatuate, while all below is vanishing 
like a shadow, and there is yet an eternity to lose, 
or an eternity to gain ! 

THE END. 



PUBLICATIONS 



AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 



D'Aubigne's History of the Refor- 
mation. A new translation, revised by 
the author, in four volumes 12mo, with 
portraits. Price $1 75, extra cloth. 

Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest, 
12mo, in large type ; also l8mo. 

Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, 12mo, 
in large type, and l8mo. Both editions 
neatly illustrated. 

Jay's Morning Exercise«. 

Mason's Spiritual Treasury, for 
every day in the year. Terse, pithy, 
and evangelical. 

Flavel's Fountain of Life, or Re- 
demption provided. 

Flavel's Method of Grace, or Re- 
demption applied to the Souls of Men. 

Bishop Hall's Scripture History, or 
Contemplations on the Historical Passa- 
ges of the Old and New Testaments. 

Bishop Hopkins on the Ten Command- 
ments. Two standard works of the 
times of Baxter. 

President Edwards' Thoughts on 
Revivals. 

Venn's Complete Duty of Man. 

Owen on Forgiveness, or Psalm 
cxxx. 

Gregory's (Olinthus, LL.D.) Evi- 
dences OF Christianity. 

Palky's Natural Theology. 



Dr. Spring's Bible not of Man, or Ihv 
Argument for the Divine Origin of tht 
Scriptures drawn from the Scriptures 
themselves. 

Nelson's Cause and Cure of Infidel 
ity. 

Memoir of Mrs. Isabella Graham 
A new and standard edition. 

Memoir of Mrs. Sarah L. Hunting 
ton Smith. 

Sacred Songs for Family and Social 
Worship. Hymns and Tunes — with a 
separate edition in patent notes. Also, 
the Hymns separately. 

Doddridge's Rise and Progress op 
Religion in the Soul. 

Edwards' History of Redemption. 

Volume on Infidelity, comprising five 
standard treatises : Soame Jenyns on 
the Internal Evidence ; Leslie's Method 
with Deists ; Lyttelton's Conversion of 
Paul ; Watson's Reply to Gibbon and 
Paine. 

Pike's Persuasives to Early Piety. 

Pike's Guide to Young Disciples. 

Anecdotes for the Family and t ik 
Social Circle. 

Universalism not of God. 

Dibble's Thoughts on Missions 

The Bible True. 



ELEGANT PRACTICAL WORKS. 



Wilberforce's Practical View. 
Hannah More's Practical Piety. 
James' Anxious Inquirer. 
Jay's Christian Contemplated. 
Elijah the Tishbite. 
Nevins' Practical Thoughts. 
Melvill's Bible Thoughts, selected by 
the late Rev. Dr. Milnor. 



Harris' Mammon. 
Gurney's Love to God. 
Foster's Appeal to the Young. 
Abbott's Young Christian. 
Abbott's Mother at Home. 
Abbott's Child at Home. 
James' Young Man from Home 



CHRISTIAN MEMOIRS. 



Rev. Claudius Buchanan, LL.D., in- 
cluding his Christian Researches in 
Asia. 

Rev. John Newton. 

Rev. Henry Martyn. 

Rev. David Brainerd. 

Rev. Edward Payson, D. D. 

Harriet L. Wins low. Missionary in 
India. 

James Brainerd Taylor. 



Harlan Page. 

NoRMAND Smith. 

Richard Baxter. 

Archbishop Leighton. 

Matthew Henry. 

Rev. C. F. Schwartz, Mi.ss.iou&r' w 

India. 
Rev Samuel Pearce. 
Rev. Samuel Kilpin, 
Hannah Hobbie. 



OTHER SPIRITUAL WORKS. 



Edwards on the Affections. 

Baxter's Call to the Unconvert- 
ed. 

Alleine's Alarm to the Uncon- 
verted. 

Flavel's Touchstone. 

Flavel on Keeping the Heart. 

IIelffenstein's Self-Deception. 

Pike's Religion and Eternal Life. 



Sherman's Guide to an Acquaint 

ance with God. 
Baxter's Dying Thoughts. 
Matthew Henry on Meekness. 
Andrew Fuller's Backslider. 
Scudder's Redeemer's Last Com 

HAND. 

Scudder's Appeal to Mothers. 
Burder's Sermons to the Aged. 



Rogue's Evidences of Christianity. 
Keith's Evidence of Prophecy. 
Morison's Counsels to Young Men. 
The Reformation in Europe. 
Nevins' Thoughts on Popery. 
Spirit of Popery, [with 12 engravings.] 



MISCELLANEOUS WORKS. 

The Colporteur and Roman Catf 



OLIC. 

Mason on Self-Knowledge. 
Beecher on Intemperance. 
Raising of Lazarus from the Dead. 
Hymns for Social Worship. 



POCKET MANUALS. 



Clarke's Scripture Promises. 
The Book of Psalms. 
The Book of Proverbs. 
Daily Scripture Expositor. 
Gems of Sacred Poetry. 
Bean and Venn's Advick to a 

ried Couple. 
Reasons of Repose. 
Daily Food for Christians. 



Mar- 



Heavenly Manna. 

Cecil and Flavel's Gift for Mourn 

ERS. 

Daily Texts. 

Diary, [Daily Texts interleaved.] 

Crumbs froxM the Master's Table. 

Milk for Babes. 

Dew-Drops. 



BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. 
MANY OF THEM BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS 



Gallaudet's Scripture Biography, 
7 vols., from Adam to David. 

Gallaudet's Youth's Book of Natu- 
ral Theology. 

Child's Book on Repentance. 

Peep OF Day. 

Line upon Line. 

Precept upon Precept. 

Amelia, the Pastor's Daughter. 

Trees, Fruits, and Flowers of the 
Bible, [9 cuts.] 

Elizabeth Bales. By John Angell 
James. 

Emily Maria. 

Newton's Letters to an Adopted 
Daughter. 

Child's Book on the Sabbath. 

Nathan W. Dickerman. 

Mary Lothrop. 

John Mooney Mead 

Henry Obookiah. 



Caroline Hyde. 

Gallaudet's Life of Josiah. 

The Dairyman's Daughter, etc. 

Charles L. Winslow. 

Withered Branch Revived. 

Peet's Scripture Lessons. 

Child's Book of Bible Stories. 

Children of the Bible. 

Amos Armfield, or the Leather-covered 

Bible. 
The Child's Hymn-Book Selected by 

Miss Caulkins. 
Scripture Animals, [16 cuts.] 
Letters to Little Children, ri3 

cuts.] 
Great Truths in Simple Words 
Clementine Cuvier. 
Rolls Plumbe. 
Pictorial Tract Primer. 
Watts' Divine and Moral Songs. 
With numerous similar works. 



ALSO— 



In French — 12 volumes. 
In Welsh — Pilgrim's Prepress and Bax 
ter's Saints' Rest and Call. 



Dr. Edwards' Sabbath Manual, Parts 

1, 2, 3, and 4. 
Dr. Edwards' Temperance Manual. 
In German — 31 vols, various sizes. 

Also, upwards of 1,000 Tracts and Children's Tracts, separate, bound, or in packets, 
adapted for convenient sale by merchants and traders, many of them with beauUfuJ 
engravings — in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, 

Swedish, and Welsh. 

C^y It is the design of the Sotnety to issue all its publications in good type, for tlie 
poor as well as the ricli ; and to sell them, as nearly as may be, at cost, that the Society 
may neither sustain loss nor make a profit by all its sales. 



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